Giving high priority to developing renewable sources of energy
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Munir Ahmed
The process of getting electricity from the solar source needs to be properly facilitated by government's fiscal policies. Imported equipment for this sector should be exempted from all sorts of duties and the entrepreneurs concerned should also be rewarded with measures like tax holiday for a long period. There are many promising the prospects for renewable energies in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has the potential to produce a very substantial quantity of electricity on a sustainable basis from the solar source alone. This amount, as a rough reckoning suggests, can be well above the current total effective demand for electricity in the country. Meanwhile, rice husks, produced as a by-product after separating the grain from the chaff, can also be utilized by small scale plants to generate, as a report in the media said, about 400 mw of electricity on daily basis throughout the country. This amount would meet the total demand for power of rice mills and leave a surplus for any user. Then, there are much potentials to produce electricity from winds by operating windmills, from operating small turbines in rivers when their flows are strong and from waves of the ocean in the coastal areas. Even our neighbouring countries, specially India, have been harnessing such non-conventional power for some years. Such non-conventional powers supply a significant amount also to the national grid of that country. The vast rural areas of India have been provided with electricity from developing and utilizing such non-conventional sources of off-grid electricity. The same model of viable electrification beckons to Bangladesh for the taking. The slogan in this country of reaching power to all on an enduring basis can be only realistically met from developing such renewable off-grid grid sources of electricity in the rural areas where the greatest number in the Bangladesh population have an existence. Bangladesh presently spends a great deal of resources on imported petroleum-based fuels. But these imports can be substantially decreased from domestically produced alternatives. For example, there is a scope for producing ethanol from the molasses produced in large quantities in Bangladesh. Ethanol can be also produced from other sources such as agricultural wastes and from municipal garbage. Ethanol is an ideal fuel. It burns cleanly, producing virtually none of the pollutants associated with conventional gasoline or diesel oil. And the technology for producing it is relatively simple and, thus, affordable for a country like Bangladesh. In the USA and Brazil, vehicles operate on mixtures that contain up to 20 per cent ethanol. Furthermore, there is the potential of producing diesel for use in automotive vehicles in Bangladesh from jatrofa plants. The seeds of this plant are crushed to make a liquid similar to diesel called bio-diesel. Bio-diesel from jatrofa plants is significantly meeting requirements of fuels for transporters in neighbouring India. Jatrofa plants can grow easily without a care anywhere. A plan to introduce jatrofa cultivation was reported sometime ago. But no further follow-up in the matter was heard since then. Therefore, activities should be speeded up to produce ethanol and bio-disel and use them extensively in the road transport sector.
The process of getting electricity from the solar source needs to be properly facilitated by government's fiscal policies. Imported equipment for this sector should be exempted from all sorts of duties and the entrepreneurs concerned should also be rewarded with measures like tax holiday for a long period. There are many promising the prospects for renewable energies in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has the potential to produce a very substantial quantity of electricity on a sustainable basis from the solar source alone. This amount, as a rough reckoning suggests, can be well above the current total effective demand for electricity in the country. Meanwhile, rice husks, produced as a by-product after separating the grain from the chaff, can also be utilized by small scale plants to generate, as a report in the media said, about 400 mw of electricity on daily basis throughout the country. This amount would meet the total demand for power of rice mills and leave a surplus for any user. Then, there are much potentials to produce electricity from winds by operating windmills, from operating small turbines in rivers when their flows are strong and from waves of the ocean in the coastal areas. Even our neighbouring countries, specially India, have been harnessing such non-conventional power for some years. Such non-conventional powers supply a significant amount also to the national grid of that country. The vast rural areas of India have been provided with electricity from developing and utilizing such non-conventional sources of off-grid electricity. The same model of viable electrification beckons to Bangladesh for the taking. The slogan in this country of reaching power to all on an enduring basis can be only realistically met from developing such renewable off-grid grid sources of electricity in the rural areas where the greatest number in the Bangladesh population have an existence. Bangladesh presently spends a great deal of resources on imported petroleum-based fuels. But these imports can be substantially decreased from domestically produced alternatives. For example, there is a scope for producing ethanol from the molasses produced in large quantities in Bangladesh. Ethanol can be also produced from other sources such as agricultural wastes and from municipal garbage. Ethanol is an ideal fuel. It burns cleanly, producing virtually none of the pollutants associated with conventional gasoline or diesel oil. And the technology for producing it is relatively simple and, thus, affordable for a country like Bangladesh. In the USA and Brazil, vehicles operate on mixtures that contain up to 20 per cent ethanol. Furthermore, there is the potential of producing diesel for use in automotive vehicles in Bangladesh from jatrofa plants. The seeds of this plant are crushed to make a liquid similar to diesel called bio-diesel. Bio-diesel from jatrofa plants is significantly meeting requirements of fuels for transporters in neighbouring India. Jatrofa plants can grow easily without a care anywhere. A plan to introduce jatrofa cultivation was reported sometime ago. But no further follow-up in the matter was heard since then. Therefore, activities should be speeded up to produce ethanol and bio-disel and use them extensively in the road transport sector.