On 16 January 2020, UPM supported 49.5 MW Sachal Wind Power Project in Jhampir, Pakistan (CDM 10162, GS 3511) successfully obtained its first issuance with around 151,000 Gold Standard CERs from the vintages 2017-2019 (Monitoring Period 11 April 2017 – 28 February 2019). After deduction of 2% of issued carbon credits as CDM share of proceeds for climate change adaptation cost assistance, slightly more than 148,000 premium-quality GS CERs will be available for sale.

Pakistani Sachal Wind Power Project, located 91km Northeast from Karachi city, belongs to a family of first-of-its-kind projects in Pakistan. The project owner is Sachal Energy Development (Pvt) Ltd. (SEDL), whereas UPM has been in charge of developing this project under CDM and Gold Standard and will also take care of commercializing this project’s carbon credits.

The project operates newly installed wind turbines with a total capacity of 49.5 MW, which will supply an average annual electricity generation of 136,500 MWh to the National Transmission & Dispatch Company Limited (NTDC) grid. By providing climate-friendly wind electricity, it will reduce the baseline grid GHG emissions from fossil fuel dominated power supply by an estimated annual 84,000 tCO₂e.

The project has obtained approval for transition to the new Gold Standard for Global Goals (GS4GG) on September 23, 2018. Apart from its GHG savings (SDG 13 – Climate Action), the project is also certified under GS4GG for the following SDG (7 & 8):

• Pakistan is still passing through an acute energy crisis. Therefore, the project’s substantial electricity supply helps reducing the number of black-outs and brown-outs and lifts the economic performance of Pakistani businesses connected to the grid (SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy).
• The project will offer job opportunities for local people during the construction phase and the operational period, and thus create income and support economic growth in the region (SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth).

In addition to its contribution to the global Sustainable Development Goals, the project also contributes to local sustainable development in various ways, including:

• By replacing fossil fuels, the project is instrumental to improving local air quality in Pakistan and ensuring stable power supply for Pakistani hospitals, both affects public health positively (SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being).
• As a first of its kind wind project, it also promotes innovation and an important transfer of technical know-how to Pakistan which is essential for modernizing its deficient energy infrastructure (SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

Going forward and provided the global Corona virus crisis will be brought under control in the next months, the Sachal Wind Project will have annual verifications and issuances to meet the recurring demand of sophisticated voluntary carbon offsetters for the most recent GS CER vintages.

Your contacts at UPM for the Sachal Wind Project and its GS CERs are:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany
mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197 – 50

and

Gaiai Guo, Vice General Manager, UPM China
guog(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500