Published on, Aug. 24 -- August 24, 2025 2:51 AM
Pakistan is blessed with a lot of human potential and talent. If we somehow put this available talent to constructive use, we can certainly transform Pakistan into one of the most rapidly developing economies in the world in a decade or two from now. As per the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistan has the highest rate of urbanisation in South Asia and as per another estimation by the UN Population Division, half of the country's population will be living in cities by 2025. Thus, keeping the already stated facts in mind, we must work on adopting a more circular approach to manage resources more sustainably in our urban areas. To fulfil the needs of our growing population and rapid urbanisation, we must work to systematically eliminate waste of resources in our urban environment. It is crucial for us to adopt a circular approach to make our urban areas more resilient, efficient and self-sufficient, particularly when it comes to renewable electricity generation.
As per the European Parliament, the circular economy is based on a model of production and consumption that encourages sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling materials and products as long as possible. Thus, the circular approach is a tactical method to put every available resource, either directly or indirectly, to constructive use and to eliminate waste as much as possible. Circular approach encourages us to use whatever resources we have at our disposal for a creative purpose and try to do more with fewer resources. Did you ever observe that if you travel via motorcycle on highways and main roads in cities, you will feel a strong wind gust whenever a fast-moving car or bus passes by you? What if we put this strong wind gust to a better use, more precisely to produce clean electricity? It would be an excellent strategy to enhance clean electricity production and to maximise the implementation of the circular economy in our urban environment. I believe it would be a much-needed step in the right direction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our cities. It is possible, and we have what it takes to use the strong wind generated by a passing vehicle for a better purpose that gets wasted otherwise. We must particularly focus on using every available resource to the fullest and to do more with less in our cities to meet the social, economic and environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.
Deveci Tech is a Turkish creative company that has designed a solution named Enlil. It is a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) that requires the bare minimum space for installation and is comparatively very small in size compared to conventional wind turbines. Enlil is primarily capable of harnessing both natural wind and wind generated by a passing vehicle. It can easily be installed between two traffic lanes. The city of Istanbul has already installed Enlil VAWT and is testing its capability to generate clean electricity from both natural wind and wind produced because of a passing vehicle. Vortex Bladeless is a Spanish wind power startup that has manufactured a bladeless small wind turbine that is quite easy to install and maintain in an urban environment. Contrary to conventional wind turbines, the Vortex device is without blades and comprises a fixed base hosting a cylindrical mast that can move freely with the wind. As a result of mast movement, the inner parts of a Vortex device interact with each other to generate clean electricity. Due to its simple design, the Vortex Bladeless device easily blends in with urban infrastructure.
Similarly, Uneole is a French cleantech company that has designed wind turbines that could easily be installed on rooftops in urban areas. Do you know that we can install solar PV panels on these wind turbines and thus transform them into a hybrid technology capable of producing renewable electricity from both wind and solar energy technologies? The only difference is that Uneole's designed solution can host more solar PV panels, whereas Enlil can only host a single solar PV panel. The core reason is that the former is meant to harness wind potential on rooftops that have a lot more space, and the latter is specifically designed to harness the wind from passing vehicles. However, both solutions, if applied on a broad level across cities, can certainly help us in transforming roads and buildings into micro-engines of renewable energy production. By doing so, we can do more with fewer resources. We could use the same infrastructure for both transport and clean electricity production. Likewise, we can use the same building for residential purposes as well as to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power. A combination of both solar PV panels and wind turbines is a match made in heaven and can produce clean electricity in all types of weather.
Imagine if solutions like Enlil vertical axis wind turbine by Deveci Tech, Uneole designed wind turbines and Vortex Bladeless from Vortex Bladeless S.L. would pop up on major roads and highways in cities across Pakistan. Similarly, if each rooftop in Pakistan were to host small wind turbines installed together with solar PV panels, we could harness both wind and solar energy potential for clean electricity production. By doing so, we would optimise the functionality of these micro-engines of clean power production. On a sunny but windless day, solar PV panels would compensate for the electricity production loss from rooftop-based wind turbines and on extremely windy and cloudy days, rooftop wind turbines would compensate for the loss of electricity from solar PV panels. Thus, a mixture of both clean energy technologies would certainly act as a strong backup for each other. From an environmental perspective, the already spoken strategy would boost the clean electricity production in our urban areas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. From a financial perspective, we can train our youth to work in the clean energy technology sector and reduce unemployment in Pakistan. With a dent in the unemployment curve in Pakistan, the existing socio-economic gap between the rich and the poor will certainly shrink. So, an exponential increase in installed capacity of small wind turbines will create a win-win situation for Pakistan in social, economic and environmental aspects of Sustainable Development.
To conclude, now is the time for us to think out of the box and optimise the use of resources we already have at our disposal. Our highways and rooftops in urban areas present an excellent opportunity to harness wind energy from both natural wind and wind generated by a passing vehicle. All we need to do is install unconventional wind turbines for clean electricity production. A successful implementation of the presented idea will certainly be a first step in transforming our urban areas into microengines of clean electricity production. We must work on making our urban areas more sustainable and self-sufficient in terms of electricity generation. We have what it takes to mature rooftop and road-based unconventional wind energy technology in Pakistan. Choice is ours and will always be.