Mitigation of GHG Emissions with a 50 MW Wind Power Plant: A Case Study of Pakistan

Abstract

The combustion of fossil fuels for power generation produces large amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) which causes not only global warming and climate change but also indirectly affects the life of all living organisms and the environment. There are worldwide efforts by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the reduction of these GHGs by means of various methodologies for short to long term strategies. Renewable energy technologies and more significantly wind energy provide economical and sustainable solutions to the environmental and atmospheric issues. This study estimates the mitigation of GHGs by a 50 MW wind power plant on the basis of current baseline emission factor of national grid of Pakistan. The results specify that a 50 MW of wind energy plant in Pakistan can generate about 110 GWh of electricity annually which can mitigate or reduce about 63620 ton CO2eq emissions of GHGs from the power generation annually.