Want to develop the country? Develop a sustainable energy program first!

The valley around the Indus River in Pakistan is one of the steamiest regions on earth. Temperatures teeter regularly in the low 100s. But what should be a solar energy hotbed, is instead an energy wasteland. Only one-third of Pakistanis who inhabit this region have reliable access to electricity. How can any country expect to make social, cultural, and political progress without a well-informed, technological-proficient population?

The World Bank has long hoped to bridge the gap between developing countries’ abundance of natural resources and the discourse keeping them from competing on the global economy. They’ve invested $11.6 million towards gathering data to help guide those developing countries on a sustainable path, but so far – no answers have presented themselves.

While first-world problems like unemployment, healthcare, and gun control rage, many parts of the world are still afflicted by power blackouts and tainted water wells. Simple luxuries we take for granted. So hospitals can’t open. Schools close. Small businesses go bankrupt. Asia and Africa account for roughly two-thirds of the 1.2 billion people currently living ‘off the grid’. These are people who’ve never heard of Facebook or Google!

This outrageous number often scares investors away from developing countries. Instead, they dump their private equity in the U.S. and European markets which, though certainly unpredictable, are much more reliable.

The world’s poorest populations are punished as a result. If temperatures rise by 4 degrees C, 7.2 degrees F by 2090, which according to a recent studied published by the World Bank they’re expected to, then crops across the African continent will burn. Rice paddies in Southeast Asia will drown. People will die and villages will be wiped out.

How do we expect the developing world to develop without any people?

The challenge they face right now involves simple math: fossil fuels are cheaper than green energy alternative. Although the world’s wealthiest countries have donated considerable sums of money to renewable energy programs throughout the third world, there’s simply no way to combat the affordability and availability of fossil fuels.

Because these people have worries other than their carbon footprints. Most don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

That’s why NRGLab is lending a hand to the developing world. By helping them create an independent energy infrastructure, we can begin the healing process.

The future isn’t set in stone. And we’re dead set on making sure it’s greener than today.

In desperate times, new map shows world-wide energy potential

NRGLab isn’t alone in helping the developing world obtain reliable access to energy. A program being instituted by the World Bank is helping countries map their energy potentials. The hope is that this new map will provide countries with a plan for creating a renewable, self-sufficient infrastructure. Fingers crossed.

The World Bank’s program extends beyond outdated solar and wind models to provide the real data governments need to understand their natural resource potential. Pakistan epitomizes the energy challenges faced by developing countries. Despite an abundance of renewable resources – hydro, bio waste, solar, and wind – one third of the nation's population lives without regular access to electricity. Pakistan has lofty goals for their solar and wind programs currently in development, while innovative projects like those offered by NRGLab go unnoticed.

“The importance of this resource mapping cannot be overstated,” says Arif Alauddin, Director of Pakistan’s National Energy Conservation Center. “The country’s energy shortage is unprecedented, tariffs are going up, and petroleum imports are eating up a large share of export earnings.  There is a need to shift to domestic renewable energy resources.”

While solar and wind maps have been available for years now, they fail to identify projects in the private sector in need of development funding.  So basically – the rich get rich, while everyone else in the science community struggles to get noticed.

This problem is why the World Bank joined together with nine countries, including Pakistan, Indonesia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zambia, to create a new map of renewable energy potential. Financed by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), the map will cover solar, wind, biomass, and small hydropower potential.

Resource mapping is a step in the right direction, for sure. But does it quite cover the array of energy opportunities presented by NRGLab?

With our revolutionary gasification techniques, NRGLab can convert all-natural gas, coal, risk husk, and APG into useable fuel. For developing countries, this means increasing their share of the global energy market, not to mention creating a sustainable, independent domestic infrastructure.

“Resource mapping is a crucial step in providing the resource and policy certainty that commercial developers need to scale up investment in renewables,” says Oliver Knight, Senior Energy Specialist at ESMAP.  “In addition, government authorities will be better informed in negotiations on specific projects, and donors will have a clearer sense of the data and capacity needs, as well as the renewable potential, of clients.”

NRGLab has been focused on this goal from the start. Providing consumers with a cost-effective, clean alternative is the solution to the energy crisis. For more information on partnering with NRGLab, visit nrglab.asia.

Together, we can ensure a greener future. For our children. And their children. For centuries after we’re gone.