A parliamentary forum in Pakistan highlights LNG’s interim role and its CO2 impact, warns against take-and-pay deal lock-ins, and points to rapid solar growth as key to cleaner energy planning.
LNG as a player in the solarization process
The dialogue ‘The Sun and the Pipeline: Energy Contracts in an Era of Solar Disruption in Pakistan’, organized by the Parliamentary Forum on the Energy and the Economy on Friday, highlighted an important but frequently neglected aspect of the energy debate: the role of liquefied natural gas. LNG is a ‘good’ fuel source because it does not produce anything like the greenhouse gases and other pollutants that oil does. But it is considered a sort of halfway house, for it does produce carbon dioxide, and is not a permanent solution the way solar energy is, which generates electricity without generating any GHGs. It should also be remembered that gas-fired thermal generation plants need a constant flow of imported RLNG, which will only increase as Pakistan’s own gas deposits are depleted, losing up to 16 percent a year already. Forum Convenor Dr Nafisa Shah warned against further long-term contracts that could lock Pakistan into take-and-pay obligations, raising the circular debt. Solar power only requires the import of panels, and that too only as long as indigenous production capacity is not developed.
There has been a revolution in the country’s energy profile, with solar power, with an estimated 50 GW installed, generating 54.75 TWh of electricity a year, the equivalent of 1279 million cubic feet a day of gas-fired generation. This means that not only was gas not imported, but oil was not either. That has been another way the contribution of solar power to the country’s energy security was shown. The dialogue contained a number of contributions calling for the integration of solar power into both generation and planning. This shows once again that the time for opposing solarization is over, that the utilities should not leave the consumer to install generation equipment, but to use solar power as a cheap, non-polluting source itself.
What the dialogue addressed only obliquely is that consumers have been driven to solarization, which is hardly the most hassle-free of processes, only by the high tariffs that are in vogue. If the distribution companies could use the savings that solar power affords to reduce tariffs, it would find a reduction in the drive towards solarization. However, solarization remains the renewable od the future. Its pote ]ntial is almost limitless, and the country has just begun to scratch the surface.
Reference Link:- https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2026/08/30/sun-and-gas