With fast-depleting reserves of non-renewable sources of energy, Bangladesh's power sector's dependence on imported fuel is increasing. Of late, imported coal and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) are becoming the driver of the country's power generation regime based on non-renewable fossil fuels. From the existing power plants, the country produces some 3 gigawatts (GW) from imported coal and LNG. An additional 6.2 GW of power are planned to be added to the existing capacity of coal-based power in the country. Similarly, CNG-run power plants will increase excess power reserve further. But how long will the country be able to bear the mounting costs of importing fossil fuels? And being in the frontline of climate change, can Bangladesh go on increasing its carbon footprints indefinitely? The time is up for the country to shift its energy base from the non-renewable fossil fuels to a sustainable, renewable one. And it is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. The San Francisco-based non-government body, Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which studies evolving global energy landscape by generating database and reports said some months back that Bangladeshis one of the world's top 20 countries with prospective solar farm capacity. So far, Bangladesh could develop capacity for generating 541.17 MW electricity from solar power and 2.9 MW from wind power.
Also, according to the National Solar Energy Roadmap, with an average solar radiation of 4.5 (kWh/m2)(kilowatt-hour per square metre), Bangladesh has a huge potential for harvesting this abundant green energy through both photovoltaic and thermal devices. Going by the draft Integrated Energy and Power Masterplan (IEPMP), Bangladesh's renewable energy sector generates approximately 777 MW of power, of which close to 70 per cent was from solar energy till 2021. In Bangladesh's solar energy sector, the major categories include solar parks, solar home system (SHS), rooftop solar power and solar irrigation system. Though solar parks have the highest potential to play the biggest role in transitioning to the green energy system, yet scarcity of land that solar parks require comes in the way. In that case, the next best option is the rooftop solar system. It can well meet both the industrial and residential needs for power. And roof spaces of the industrial facilities and residential buildings are also not as limited as the spaces on the ground. For in a land-scarce country, the first priority should be to have enough land for agriculture for the nation's sustenance. There is also the need for having sufficient amount of forestland which has meanwhile receded alarmingly.
Against this backdrop, the government has set the target of adding 300 MW of rooftop solar power by 2025. These rooftop solar power systems can be installed on high-rise buildings and the financial support for the project is also available from IDCOL (Infrastructure Development Company Limited) , a government-owned non-bank financial body to finance mainly infrastructural projects for renewable energy. But for making the rooftop solar energy project successful, high import duties of solar power inverters need to be reduced. And, at the same time, arrangements should be there to produce quality inverters locally.
In fact, challenges of transitioning to a clean energy phase for Bangladesh, like any other country of the world, are enormous. The technology on which life and economy of the modern world hinges is still basically based on fossil energy. So, switching to an energy technology base different from the prevailing one overnight is a pipe dream. Moreover, alternative technologies, for instance, the ones based on solar power, or hydrogen fuel, or even nuclear power have not yet proved to be viable ones to replace fossil fuel any time soon. Which is why, the Ukraine war created so much impact across the globe as a major source of global fossil fuel, Russia, stopped supplying natural gas to Europe. Ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is yet another source of global tension due to its potential for spreading into the oil-producing nation of that region.
So, green, or for that matter, clean energy transition cannot be achieved in one stroke. It has to be done in a phased manner. And so the strategies for transitioning to clean energy will vary from country to country. In Bangladesh, for example, the recently drafted Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP) provides a long-term strategy that forecasts like this. If the country aspires for net zero emissions or if advanced technologies could be put into use, it has to utilise solar and wind technologies, expand nuclear capacity, turn coal-fired plants into ammonia co-firing ones, replace gas with hydrogen, adopt carbon-capture and storage technology and minimise oil and captive power. Clearly, carbon-emitting technology will continue at least till 2040, according to the plan. So, it is a mix of both dirty and clean technologies that will continue for some time before a fully clean energy transition can be achieved. However, the actual time required will perhaps be longer than envisaged. But considering the ever-worsening climate conditions, the innovations for more efficient clean-energy technologies are not progressing fast enough. Even so Bangladeshi researchers working in the field should keep track of the new innovations being made and try to replicate those at home. In many cases, some innovations do not involve high technology, which Bangladeshi researchers can work on to see if those could be adapted to local conditions.
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