Solar power solution in Karachi
Ok this is not a hidden secret that most of us are sick of over load shedding these days and many businesses have vanised from the surface due to power outage.
I always wonder why didn’t we go for solar solution? I don’t even know “S” of Solar energy solution but I always heard its not feasible and requires lots of space.
I wonder whether some company/home taking advantage of solar energy? why didn’t our filthy politicians and the guy in Army house installed solar panels in their residences? Oh.. sorry I forgot, light jaye gi tab na. So any poor 3rd grade Pakistani ever tried Solar panel? Maybe some electrical engineer could shed some light. Why can’t we have solar solution for our homes. Is there anyone in Karachi providing solar solution which could be installed either in a Mohalla or in a home? I think it would be good to take burden off from KESC. We usually waste lots of money in eating junk and parties, if we spend a bit in finding a solution then it would be more helpful for many of us.
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July 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I believe wind power is more feasible for our country.
You can find an excellent post on this topic at http://www.socialbridges.org/2008/07/22/green-energy-2-wind-farming-potential-of-pakistan/
July 30th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Solar power has a big potential. For example, all street lights can easily be switched to solar energy saving 100s of MW of power for residential use. Only if they think…
August 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
i think it is not tapped because it required initiative and imagination and we have neither. Another reason could be the fact that it is very expensive
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
they will put tax on solar energy as well ……hahaha
August 8th, 2008 at 4:31 am
I have seen some kind of wind energy solution in def phase 2 ext i heard they have lot of things to sell
September 10th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Both Solar and Wind solutions are possible, but there are few limitations.
First thing is that, we cannot get the same amount of energy through wind or solar as we are getting from KESC. A normal house, i guess take 5KVA of electricity now a days. The supply from KESC can provide constant power (if there is no load shading). On the other hand, if we use wind or solar, we cannot get this much amount of continous power. There are following reasons.
Solar:-
1) To get continous high power electricity to run our house, we need very large solar panels exposed to sunlight 24 hour, which is not possible at night time.
2) Sun’s intensity is not same all the time. The maimum intensity is possible only at around 12 O’clock day time. This means, solar panel cannot give continous power in any region of the world.
3) To run a house for 5KVA, we need very large panels which could take entire or more roof area of a 120 yards house (its not calculated, it is just my guess).
4) For all of above three problems, solar energy is not used stand alone, and people design a solar solution with the help of UPS. The UPS uses batterys which provides DC supply which is than further converted to AC supply and step up to 220 volts. The solar panels used to recharge the battery packs. But here the fact is very sad that the rate at which we consume the battery is much more higher than the rate we charge through solar panels or even from KESC. People who are using UPS must know about this in todays worst loadshading of 2 hours power down after every our. I have seen people’s ups failed at all.
5) The most important thing. Solar panels are very very expensive. Few weeks ago i asked the price of a solar panel in a local shop (panel made in Germany) was 65,000 rupees. According to the shop guy, the panel can provide 12V 8A in full light intensity which can charge a car battery in 10 to 12 hours! so, just to charge a single battery in 10 to 12 hour you have to spend 65,000 rupees. Think about putting only 10 panels on your roof. It will cost you 6,50,000 Rs.
6) Last but not the least. How many of the karachi people are living in a single or double story homes? we have large amount of apartment buildings. What will a person do who is living in a flat who dont have his own roof.
So, the bottom line for solar system is that, we cannot use solar as areplacement of KESC. The only thing we can do from solar is to power up our emergency lights or only less power consuming devices.
Wind:-
1) Wind turbine cannot be installed on every house. The wind turbine is has to be installed in a place where the wind is blowing. For example, if your house is under the shadow or a large building, you can not move your wind turbine.
2) just like solar, the power coming from wind turbine will first charge ups batterys than you will get the power out of it. The reason is that the wind speed is not constant all the time, and you will get very fluctuating power if you get directly from the turbine.
3) Wind turbines are not expensive to built, but in our country people are importing these from west countries and they are very expensive. We are the dumb guys, we dont trust in our own creations.
According to my understanding, the wind is also not a replacement of KESC if we install a turbine individually.
The only thing which is technically possible is to built wind farm at some place where the wind conditions are good, then this energy could be supplied to KESC lines. By building a wind farm, many of the problems described above will be eliminated.
Or, if permitted by the government, people at the colony level can buy big wind turbines and make there own electricity to run there homes.
In Karachi there are many places where the wind conditions are very good. Like people living near the beach (we have very big coastal area). People who are living around the city is also an open area like super highway area. The whole liyari river is full of high speed wind.
According to a wind turbine user, around 8 monts of the year, wind comes from the sea side which is enough to rotate a turbine. In winter season, the wind speed is much slower.
So from me, The wind turbines are feasible for Karachi users as compare to solar. but the only thing is that installing a wind turbine individually will not give the required result. We have to make wind farms (on small or large scale).