Speakers emphasised on Wednesday the need for more research and collection of categorical data to attract more private investments in the biomass energy sector of the country.
They also observed that if there had been sufficient information and data available with the government, then entrepreneurs of the country could enter the sector.
Government officials and representatives of development partners made the observations at a dissemination seminar on 'comprehensive assessment of the availability and use of biomass fuels for various end-uses with special attention to power generation'.
The event held at the city's Engineers Institution was organised by the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) and the Development of Sustainable Renewable Energy Power Generation (SREPGen) Project of the UNDP.
Power Division senior secretary Ahmad Kaikaus addressed the event as the chief guest while UNDP-Bangladesh representative Aminul Islam spoke as the special guest.
"If we could build a categorical data centre, the entrepreneurs and local representatives and others could be interested in investing in the sector based on more such researches," said Ahmad Kaikaus.
Attaching importance to more research, he also pointed out some limitations of the assessment report. Besides, he also said that researchers also should do research on how to reduce pressure on the power and energy sector.
UNDP-Bangladesh representative Aminul Islam believed that such a study could help the power and energy sector of the country attain the related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
But, experts at the programme said that there were no certain data as to how many households were using biomass energy as different organisations and agencies provided different data.
And, to address the difference more research was needed in the sector, they added.
Prof. Ijaz Hossain made a presentation on conceptual issues and assessment of the role of biomass fuels in total energy consumption in Bangladesh and in selected development and developing countries.
In his presentation he showed that biomass fuels contributed 10 per cent of the global energy supply in 2015. In Bangladesh it contributed 24.7 per cent mostly in cooking and cogeneration while the present study showed it at 36 per cent in the country.
No organisation was there responsible for collection and publication of the data on supply and consumption of biomass fuels, Prof. Ijaz Hossain added.
National biomass study consultant Prof. M Nurul Islam in his presentation put the total supplies of biomass residues from different sources at follows-tree residues 16.18 million tonnes, agricultural residues 72 million tones and animal dung (dry) 10.9 million tonnes.
He made the conclusion based on the national data from 12 city corporations and 53 district-level municipalities.
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