A sample grant proposal for Fast Track Deployment of Renewable Energy Systems in Pakistani Institutions. This work is in progress.

1. Fast Track Deployment of Renewable Energy
Systems in Pakistani Institutions
Muhammad Adil Raja
Grant Proposal
December 22, 2014
Fast Track Deployment of Renewable Energy Systems in Pakistani
Institutions by Muhammad Adil Raja is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
cbnd
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2. Abstract
Continuous supply of electric power is becoming increasingly im-
portant for the proper functioning of organizations. Many electric ap-
pliances can function adequately with intermittent electricity outages.
Uninterrupted electricity supply is not critically important for their
operation. Computing devices, such as desktop computers, however,
require some level of continuity of electric power supply. Sporadic
supply of electricity has become a hackneyed matter in Pakistan. The
main reason is the inability of the national grid to fulfill the stringent
demand for electric power supply by various public and private sec-
tors in the country. The only solution to meet the increasing demand
given a constant albeit dwindling electric power is to provide every
subscriber with a few hours of electricity per day. This explains the
omnipresent electricity outages throughout our country.
Naturally, one of the possible solutions to meet this ever increas-
ing demand for electricity is to increase the sources that can produce
electricity. To this end, investment in renewable energy systems has
become increasingly important. This grant proposal is a request for
monetary funding to deploy institution-wide renewable energy sys-
tems.
1 Introduction
Almost fourteen years ago an article was published in a local monthly Urdu
magazine. The article was concerning the future of energy systems. A central
crux of the article was that in the future the national wealth of a country
would be measured in terms of energy. This is contrary to the current tying
of the currency of any particular country with the amount of crude oil it has.
It would not be an exaggeration to assert that we have entered that promised
era.
Energy has become an increasingly important indicator of national pros-
perity. Advanced countries already spare a considerable portion of their na-
tional budget to devise new strategies to generate more energy. Renewable
energy systems have been researched vigorously over the past few decades.
At the core of this propensity are desires to decrease dependance on conven-
tional sources of energy. Crude oil and coal are the main sources. Deeply
twined to this is the urge to decrease reliance on foreign nations as sellers of
these commodities.
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3. In Pakistan we begin to realize our national needs when it is almost
too late. As a matter of fact, we begin to realize that we desperately need
something when the problems ensuing from the lack of a particular necessity
have completely overwhelmed us. Moreover, often we do not even bother to
recognize that something is so inescapably required. Personal needs aside, we
normally do not spare a speck of our time to reflect on the possible solutions,
or even problems, having consequences to our national prosperity. The most
we do is to lament the corrupt practices of our politicians.
Energy is one such problem. In many ways, energy is like cocaine. Once
addicted to it, people do not worry on as to where it is coming from. The
only thing they care about is the continuous and never ending supply of it.
Metaphors aside, in our modern history dependence on energy has made some
nation states submissive to others. Continuous supply of energy is central
to proper functioning of almost all the sectors of our day. Irrespective of
whether an institution is small or big, private or public, military or civil,
provision of continuous energy is central to its prosperity. Moreover, energy
is possibly the main driving force of our private lives nowadays.
Given the scarcity of energy generation sources and their inability to meet
national requirements, it is incumbent upon the concerned government au-
thorities to take drastic steps to invest resources in deployment of renewable
energy systems in the country. The dire need for energy systems indubitably
puts onerous obligations upon the concerned government institutions to take
rigorous steps to fill the huge gap between the demand and supply of energy.
Renewable energy systems are increasingly becoming pervasive in Pak-
istan. It is not uncommon to observe vendors of solar energy systems in
various parts of the big cities. It is also becoming ordinary to see rooftop
solar energy panels especially in the urban areas of Pakistan. Although one
might argue that adoption of solar powered energy systems should have be-
gan at least as early as fifteen years ago, given the lack of interest among
Pakistani junta in brisk embraces of useful technology one should feel blessed
that it is even happening now.
Given this embrace of renewable energy systems by ordinary citizens of
Pakistan, better prospects for the future can be envisaged. Although such
localized privately owned systems would not take the burden off the national
grid, plans for installing them on public sector institutions can be a good
starting point.
Currently most of the public sector institutions run oil powered electricity
generators to overcome the diurnal electricity outages. This not only costs too
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4. much, it is also a brainless wastage of a precious natural resource. Despite its
current low prices worldwide, crude oil would become a scarce commodity at
some point in time in the future. It does not matter how distant that future
is. The fact is that world crude oil deposits have a finite limit.
As stated earlier, a possible solution could be to install renewable energy
systems in publicly owned institutions. The funding for such installments
can come from relevant government sectors. A good starting point could be
to install solar powered energy systems on public sector institutions of higher
education. Higher education institutions are the most critically important
places in Pakistan nowadays. There is a growing awareness in our country
that modern education is crucial for national development. Students and
parents alike, everyone is euphoric about the promises that modern education
can deliver.
However, like almost all other institutions, academic campuses also suffer
from an appalling shortage of electricity. The situation becomes much ad-
verse when students have to wait for the electricity to return in order to use
a computing facility in the laboratory or elsewhere. The situation becomes
rather grotesque when a huge oil run electricity generator is run to operate a
few computing machines during the load shedding hour. It appears specially
pitiable that a huge engine is being run to keep a few fans, desktop com-
puters, or air conditioners. In order to assuage the flammable emotions of
the personnel on campus, an enormous amount of oil is burnt in every single
hour of electric power load shedding.
Installing solar energy systems on the vast and empty rooftops can have
profound benefits. At the very least, they would reduce the dependence on oil
powered electricity generators. Despite the fact that they might be expensive
to install, they are expected to turn out to be cheaper in the long run. Their
high initial capital investment can be overcome by their minimal operational
cost. Hybridizing solar energy systems with the national grid can be a better
solution to keep the uninterrupted power supply systems strong and healthy.
Moreover, surplus energy could be fed back to the grid to be used elsewhere.
Adoption of renewable energy systems is also very important by the aca-
demic institutions. In laboratories in institutions of higher education such
systems exist that require uninterrupted power supply around the clock. Sim-
ple desktop machines make one example to this end. Research and devel-
opment activities require students to run certain simulations that can span
even weeks. The current plight of electricity outages clearly hampers such
academic goals.
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5. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly common worldwide to develop cloud
computing infrastructures. Vast numbers of computing machines on aca-
demic campuses can help fulfill this. However, this requires uninterrupted
power supply to the machines around the clock so that they can remain active
to offer their services for high performance computing.
Given such requirements, funding is sought through this grant proposal
to install solar energy systems on our campus. The various estimates of the
required funding are attached with this proposal.
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