Sapphire 49.5 MW Wind Park CDM Project

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Pakistan

Wind Power in Pakistan

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Climate action project development

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Key facts

Location

Jhimpir City, Sindh Province, Pakistan
Project Type

Renewable energy – Wind
Annual GHG Emissions Reduction

78,196 tCO₂e

Project Standard

CDM
Project IDs

CDM 8163
Status

Registered

Factsheet (English)

Background

Sapphire group is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of textile products in Pakistan, with over 14,000 employees and an annual turnover of US$ 435 million. Sapphire technology originates from Europe, Japan and USA. By sourcing its raw materials locally, Sapphire capitalizes on the region‘s principal crop: cotton. It then augments its offerings by providing imported fiber.

Sapphire products are marketed to the industry‘s biggest names in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. Since textile production is energy intensive and contributes to the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG), Sapphire has decided to build and operate its own zero emissions wind farm to overcome energy supply shortages and, at the same time, seeking to avoid harmful climatic effects.

Project Description

Project owner of the Sapphire Wind Farm is Sapphire Wind Power Company Limited (SWPCL), a subsidiary of Sapphire Textile Mills Limited.

The purpose of the Sapphire 52.8 MW Wind Farm Project is to utilize wind resources for electricity generation through the construction of a wind farm with a total capacity of 52.8 MW and to deliver the electricity generated from the project to the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) grid.

By replacing the electricity supplied by the WAPDA grid, which is heavily dominated by fossil fuel fired power plants, with electricity generated from wind power the proposed project activity will achieve considerable greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions.

The project, which is the “first of its kind” CDM project type in Pakistan, foresees the installation and operation of newest foreign manufactured wind turbines, which will supply an average annual generation of 137,500 MWh to the WAPDA grid thereby reducing the baseline grid emissions by an annual 78,196 t CO₂e.

Services provided

Pre-feasibility Study
Registration under CDM
Monitoring and Issuance of carbon credits

Sustainable development goals MORE DETAILS

No Poverty

Without clean, affordable and always available energy for businesses and households it will not be possible to fight the still widespread poverty in Pakistan. Thus, the creation of additional capacity for the generation of „green“ wind power is an important precondition for developing the country economically and reducing the poverty of large parts of the Pakistani population.

Good Health and Well-being

A reliable supply with clean wind energy instead of fossil fuel use does not only improve general air quality in Pakistan and, consequently, the health of Pakistani people but also means that Pakistani hospitals and medical centers including their staff and patients do have to suffer less from frequent and sometimes life threatening power shortages and failures.

Affordable and Clean Energy

Pakistan’s fragile energy supply is still mainly based on expensive, dirty and exhaustive fossil fuels. More renewable wind power in Pakistan’s energy mix reduces this country’s costly dependency on imports of oil and coal, closes serious electricity supply gaps and promotes the establishment of a sustainable and climate-friendly energy sector in Pakistan that provides more people with access to affordable and clean energy.

Decent Work and Economic Growth

Pakistan is facing acute energy supply bottlenecks. The project produces nearly 138,000 MWh per year and will therefore contribute to a reduction in the number of black-outs and brown-outs experienced by grid users. This can help to improve Pakistan’s overall economic performance. In addition, the project creates new quality jobs for local people both temporarily, during the construction phase, and permanently, during operation.

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

The project activity is the first-of-its-kind in Pakistan. By adopting innovative foreign manufactured wind turbines, the project will promote an important transfer of technical know-how to Pakistan and can act as a pioneer in promoting the spread of this technology to other wind power projects in the country.

Climate Action

The installation and operation of newest foreign manufactured wind turbines annually supplies 137,500 MWh of wind power to the WAPDA grid, thereby replacing electricity from fossil fuels and reducing the baseline grid emissions by slightly more than 78,000 tCO2e per year. This helps to improve Pakistan’s climate balance.