In addition to reducing local inhabitants’ electricity usage, the development of small-scale hydropower can also aid in the growth of local small businesses, raise local taxes after being integrated into the national power grid, and control the regional ecosystem.
Pakistan’s green economic development is receiving energy from China-Pakistan small hydropower cooperation. In a recent interview with China Economic Net, Wang Chunping, the chairperson of Heroboss Technology group, shared the aforementioned opinions.
“Heroboss Technology collaborates primarily in science and technology with the Pakistani Ministry of Science and Tech and regional energy institutes. It is in charge of establishing a platform for S&T collaboration between the two nations in the China-Pakistan Small Hydropower Joint Research Center, connecting joint meetings of Chinese State-owned Enterprises in Pakistan, and advancing interdisciplinary S&T development.” One of the first groups of collaborative labs established as part of the “Belt and Road Initiative” is the China-Pakistan Small-scale Hydropower Technology Joint Research Center.
Five meetings have been held since the start of 2021 to discuss the small hydropower development since the establishment of the China-Pakistan “Belt and Road” joint laboratory on the technology.
Eighty percent of the equipment that China gave has arrived, and the energy show hall is now ready. It also contributed to the creation of pertinent rules for Pakistan’s small hydropower projects and finished studies for the development of a number of minor hydropower projects.
Tan Bixuan, the project manager of the CGGC DASU hydropower project in Pakistan and a consultant for the research center, stressed that the center is ready to transmit all technologies in accordance with national authorizations to help the iron brother advance more quickly and more effectively.
“Recently, we convened a collaborative conversation with big firms involved in BRI on how to give full play to achieve more technological transformation,” he said. “Hydropower projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor are in full swing in Pakistan.” Wang asserts that modest hydropower projects are more advantageous than large-scale hydropower projects for the economic development of underdeveloped mountainous areas. With a partial annual water flow of 50 m3/s, a significant height variation, and a length of one kilometer, 60% of Pakistan’s rivers are tributaries, enabling the construction of minor hydropower in many stages under natural circumstances.
Pakistan is one of the nations most severely impacted by climate change. Severe flooding has been occurring in many Pakistani provinces since mid-June 2022 as a result of numerous precipitation cycles. Tan thinks that S&T should be applied to combat climate change and aid in the restoration of Pakistan following a disaster.
“We are currently researching and working together on mobile energy storage systems, mobile communications, and mobile solar power houses for post-disaster reconstruction. Furthermore, there is much space for collaboration between China and Pakistan in the area of renewable energy, including hydropower, such as small-scale hydropower development in the northern mountains, urban waste power generation, solar power generation, hydrogen energy, air storage, etc “Tan noted.