Wind energy in Pakistan: progress, gaps, and road maps
by Sajad Hussain, Xiaonan Li, Ismat Ullah Khan
Energy Storage and Conversion, Vol.3, No.3, 2025;
Pakistan has a significant supply of wind energy, especially along the south coast; the country has been using the marginal resources, but no large-scale utilization has taken place as compared to its potential. This review is a critical analysis of wind energy development in Pakistan that has synthesized wind resource evaluation, deployment patterns, grid integration issues, and policy frameworks. As a contrast to the previous descriptive research, the article methodologically compares the estimates of the major wind potentials, examines the sources of methodological differences, and evaluates the uncertainties within the current available assessments. Based on peer-reviewed literature, reports on technical reports, and policy documents from 2000 to 2024, the review concludes that overall theoretical wind potential can be estimated at an approximate 50 GW to more than 130 GW, whereas realizable potential faces constraints as a result of grid bottlenecks, financial risk, and institutional fragmentation. Comparison to the chosen emerging wind markets, India, Egypt, and Morocco, provides a context in which Pakistan has performed and lessons which can be transferred in terms of policy and system integration. The paper ends with a synthesized roadmap that highlights grid modernization, policy uniformity, and grid diversity of deployment areas to be able to support wind energy in playing a role in the long-term energy security and decarbonization goals of Pakistan.
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