Pakistan should be producing 500 megawatts of wind energy by 2012

For this purpose, he called for periodic reports to be submitted to the Presidency, indicating the progress, made and the bottlenecks encountered.

During a briefing by Alternative Energy Development Board, Board of Revenue Sindh and Sindh Investment Board on wind farm projects, here at Bilawal House Friday, it was informed that three wind farm projects of 50MW each would start producing power within a year while the work on another 10 projects of 50MW each would start early next year.

The President was informed that another 5 wind turbines projects were at initial stage of financial close in 2012. He directed that land allocation process for 18 other wind power projects also be expedited.

Spokesperson to the President, Farhatullah Babar said the President was informed that all projects companies involved with wind power projects, have suggested announcement of upfront tariff to save at least six months project time which is spent in tariff determination by the authority concerned.

The President directed NEPRA to examine the suggestion and expressed the hope that NEPRA would soon arrive at a consensus upfront tariff regime for all the projects till the capacity to produce 2000MW is achieved.

However, the option of opting for normal tariff determination system would remain open for the companies, which do not opt for the upfront tariff, he said.

President said that incentives would be given to the companies that would be able to start their power productions within one year.

During the briefing, the President expressed satisfaction that Zorlu Energy of Turkey, FFC Wind Energy and CWE of China, each with 50MW capacity have reached advanced stage and would be able to generate power by December 2012.

The President said that such project were a good start in the quest for finding alternative resources of energy which are efficient as well as would help to reduce the dependence on traditional modes of electricity generation and at the same time expand the power supply capacity to remote locations where grid expansion is not practical.

The President said that wind energy being clean and renewable source of energy was also the world’s fastest growing energy resource and Pakistan needs to tap all available resources including that of solar energy.

The President said that the demand for energy has increased in tremendous proportions in the last few decades and is expected to increase further in the coming years.

He said "meeting the energy requirements is also crucial for our development, therefore we need to utilise all available resources for meeting the energy challenge".

Those who were present during the meeting included, among others, Provincial Ministers Ms Shazia Mari, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Mir Nadir Khan Magsi, Agha Siraj Durrani, Sharjeel Memon, Chief Secretary Sindh, Shahzar Shamoon, Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR), and concerned Provincial secretaries.

Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Water and Power, Malik Asif Hayat, Secretary to the President, Ms Fouzia Wahab and Arif Allauddin Chairman Alternative Energy Board were also present during the meeting.