Energy-starved Pakistan sets sights on coal

After years of rolling blackouts that have wreaked havoc on industry and fuelled political unrest, energy-starved Pakistan has set its sights on a coal-fired future.
Regarded as the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, recent discoveries of untapped coal fields in southern Pakistan have convinced the government they could be on the cusp of a solution to their energy woes.
Late last month, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his former rival, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari jointly inaugurated the construction of a USD 1.6 billion coal plant the southern town of Thar, hailing their shared goal of ending the nation's power crisis.

The government has also green-lighted the construction of a pilot 660 megawatt coal-fired plant in Gadani, a small, serene town on the Arabian Sea known as Pakistan's ship-breaking hub.
A 600 megawatt plant has also been given the go-ahead in the southern city of Jamshoro.
The construction of these plants is one plank in an ambitious plan to convert many of the country's existing oil-based thermal plants and upgrade its ports as they begin swapping one black gold for another.

"This is a major and historic fuel switching plan as we generate zero from coal compared to India which generates 69 per cent of its electricity from coal-fired power plants," Pakistan's minister for power and water Khwaja Asif told AFP.

Pakistan has struggled with scheduled power cuts for decades. But the problems have been particularly acute since 2008, with regular outages of up to 22 hours a day for many domestic users and even longer for industries -- costing about two percent of GDP per year.
In the hot summer, when temperatures soar to 50C in the country's centre, Pakistan produces around 18,000 MW of power, with an average deficit of 4,000 MW.