Massive plan to install 18,750 solar irrigation pumps by 2016

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M Azizur Rahman The government has chalked out a massive plan to install several thousand solar irrigation pumps to generate around 150 megawatts (mw) of electricity within the next five years as part of its move to bolster clean energy's contribution to the country's energy mix, senior officials said Wednesday. "We have a plan to install 18,750 solar irrigation pumps across the country at a cost of around Tk 59.64 billion by 2016," Additional Secretary of Power Ministry Tapos Kumar Roy told the FE. The country has already installed a dozen solar irrigation pumps, and the success of their operations has convinced policy-makers to think big to increase the number of solar irrigation pumps. The government plans to install 500 solar irrigation pumps by 2012, add 1,500 more by 2013, 3,500 more by 2014, 5,500 by 2015 and 7,750 by 2016, bringing the tally to 18,750, Roy said. He said Infrastructure Development Co Ltd (IDCOL) will be the executing agency of the plan, which will save an estimated 675 megawatt-hour (mwh) of electricity per day, cut imports by 47,000 tonnes of diesel costing US$45 million per year, and reduce carbon di-oxide emissions by 126,000 tonnes per year compared with fossil fuel combustion. Non-government organisations, micro-finance institutions and private companies also will play roles in implementing the plan, with support from donor agencies and commercial banks. The average capacity of the pumps will be eight kilowatt peak unit (kwp), and installation costs for each pump will be $42,600, IDCOL Executive Director Islam Sharif said. The solar plants will have a total installed capacity of 150 mw and will cover 160,000 hectares of rice cultivation and 430,000 hectares of vegetable cultivation, Sharif, also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IDCOL, said. "We have calculated that the net benefit of the planned programme will be around $262 million in 20 years considering establishment cost of the pumps at $806 million, diesel import saving of $900 million and clean development mechanism (CDM) revenue at $18 million," Sharif said. IDCOL, a state-run non-bank financial institution in Bangladesh, is now implementing a pilot project to install 100 solar irrigation pumps in 100 upazilas, he said, to develop a model over the next two years to install all the planned solar irrigation pumps by 2016. The model will indicate how best to install the pumps in all the country's around 600 upazilas and keep them financially viable, Sharif added. Partner organisations have already lined up to gain pilot project work. The pumps will be installed under a financing mechanism in which 30 per cent of the total cost is equity from the partner organisation, 30 per cent comes as a loan from IDCOL and 40 per cent as a grant from the donor agencies. "We have around $2.0 million grants from the World Bank and 1.0 million Euro grants from KfW to install 100 solar irrigation pumps under the pilot project," Sharif said. Installing solar irrigation pumps will prove financially viable in the agrarian economy of Bangladesh, where the agriculture sector contributes a fifth of gross domestic product, Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association president Dipal C Barua said. He noted that installation costs of the solar irrigation pumps could be recovered from farmers. "We have submitted a letter of intent to IDCOL to install at least several solar irrigation pumps initially under IDCOL's funding assistance," said Barua. The country's first installed solar irrigation pump has 11.20-kwp capacity. It was set up as a pilot project in 2009 at Naogoan in northern Bangladesh at a cost of Tk 6.0 million by Grammen Shakti, a leading renewable energy NGO (non-government organisation) in Bangladesh, with funding assistance from IDCOL. The pump has the capacity to flow 250,000 litres of water per day, Grameen Shakti CEO Abser Kamal said. But the cost of installing solar irrigation pumps has been cut to half since the first pump was installed, he said. It will ensure that new pumps will bring a quicker return on investments. The country currently has a total of 266,000 electricity-run irrigation pumps that cover 1.70 million hectares of land and consume around 1,300 mw of electricity. Some 1.34 million diesel-run irrigation pumps also remain operational during irrigation season that use 900,000 tonnes of diesel to irrigate 3.40 million hectares of land. Country's overall electricity generation is now hovering around 5,000 mw against the demand for over 6,500 mw.