Immediate actions are needed on the energy front
Friday, 24 July 2009
Saquib Mustafa
WHEN economic activities in Bangladesh are getting slowed down alarmingly from energy shortages, it is absurd that its potential reserves of high energy -- some 2.5 billion tonnes of coal deposits of high grade -- are kept buried underground from fruitless bickering over the manner of their extraction and pondering about alternatives. The main price of such indecision, purposeful controversy creation and the dithering as a result, is the postponement of the badly needed economic growth.
Even after taking into account the political tumult witnessed two years ago and the economic slowdown from multiple reasons during the period of emergency rule, the country's economic growth could have been higher by several percentage points if only energy supplies matched demand.
The serious shortage of gas and power with the former being used also as a raw material for the production of important economic goods, has meant underproduction in existing enterprises, discouraging their expansion, thwarting newly established production capacities from starting operations and frustrating plans of new investments requiring energy consumption. Thus, inadequate supply of energy is posing as the single biggest problem for the maintenance of economic activities and their expansion in the context of Bangladesh. It should be well appreciated by all concerned that the goal of boosting private investment under the given situation relating to supply of energy will remain mere a pious wish, no matter what fiscal incentives and supportive monetary policy are 'ensured' for the purpose.
According to some experts, the proven reserves of gas in the country will be all utilised another 15 years from now, if new gas reserves are not found and exploited by that time. This should serve as a wake-up call for the planners to be really proactive and losing no time in very rapidly starting the process of extraction and utilization of the country's coal resources for power production. But that decision about use of coal is still pending while the power crunch continues to deepen with great crippling effects on the economy. There was needless hassle over coal-fired power stations as being unclean and their environmental polluting effects. But coal continues to be a major source of power in neighbouring India. Australia is dependent on coal for a substantial amount of its power supply and also a large number of other countries. Even the UK keeps on getting a good share of its energy from coal based power stations. Even the nuclear power stations that have been set up in that country considering their non-polluting characteristics, have proved to be not so safe as its residents near the nuclear power stations complained about environmental hazards from them.
Thus, very clean harnessing of energy from any source is more an utopia than reality. The point is that a rapidly developing country like Bangladesh must put its bets on developing an energy source which is economical for it as well as meets the reasonable standards of environmental safety. The large coal deposits would meet both criterion ideally. The coal deposits are the equivalent of some 60 trillion tcf of gas. Considering that the gas reserves are depleting fast, the same needs to be conserved and utilized mainly for producing commercial goods like fertlisers while relatively more abundant coal reserves at this stage -- that are likely to last at least fifty years even under projections of stepped-up economic activities -- can be mainly used for power production.
As for the clean use of coal, there are now technologies available at affordable costs that render the use of coal far safer and easier for the environment. The method of extraction can be also similarly settled for good by weighing all the pros and cons. What is most important is to be decisive and start work right away in using the coal reserves to meet the country's present energy needs and to build energy security. But the development of the country's coalfields have practically been put on hold as the coal policy has not been operationalised, despite the fact that the country has since long been suffering from a severe energy crisis.
This dilly-dallying is completely unacceptable. All hurdles on the path of immediate start up of works to effectively use coal for power production, need to start immediately on top gears.
WHEN economic activities in Bangladesh are getting slowed down alarmingly from energy shortages, it is absurd that its potential reserves of high energy -- some 2.5 billion tonnes of coal deposits of high grade -- are kept buried underground from fruitless bickering over the manner of their extraction and pondering about alternatives. The main price of such indecision, purposeful controversy creation and the dithering as a result, is the postponement of the badly needed economic growth.
Even after taking into account the political tumult witnessed two years ago and the economic slowdown from multiple reasons during the period of emergency rule, the country's economic growth could have been higher by several percentage points if only energy supplies matched demand.
The serious shortage of gas and power with the former being used also as a raw material for the production of important economic goods, has meant underproduction in existing enterprises, discouraging their expansion, thwarting newly established production capacities from starting operations and frustrating plans of new investments requiring energy consumption. Thus, inadequate supply of energy is posing as the single biggest problem for the maintenance of economic activities and their expansion in the context of Bangladesh. It should be well appreciated by all concerned that the goal of boosting private investment under the given situation relating to supply of energy will remain mere a pious wish, no matter what fiscal incentives and supportive monetary policy are 'ensured' for the purpose.
According to some experts, the proven reserves of gas in the country will be all utilised another 15 years from now, if new gas reserves are not found and exploited by that time. This should serve as a wake-up call for the planners to be really proactive and losing no time in very rapidly starting the process of extraction and utilization of the country's coal resources for power production. But that decision about use of coal is still pending while the power crunch continues to deepen with great crippling effects on the economy. There was needless hassle over coal-fired power stations as being unclean and their environmental polluting effects. But coal continues to be a major source of power in neighbouring India. Australia is dependent on coal for a substantial amount of its power supply and also a large number of other countries. Even the UK keeps on getting a good share of its energy from coal based power stations. Even the nuclear power stations that have been set up in that country considering their non-polluting characteristics, have proved to be not so safe as its residents near the nuclear power stations complained about environmental hazards from them.
Thus, very clean harnessing of energy from any source is more an utopia than reality. The point is that a rapidly developing country like Bangladesh must put its bets on developing an energy source which is economical for it as well as meets the reasonable standards of environmental safety. The large coal deposits would meet both criterion ideally. The coal deposits are the equivalent of some 60 trillion tcf of gas. Considering that the gas reserves are depleting fast, the same needs to be conserved and utilized mainly for producing commercial goods like fertlisers while relatively more abundant coal reserves at this stage -- that are likely to last at least fifty years even under projections of stepped-up economic activities -- can be mainly used for power production.
As for the clean use of coal, there are now technologies available at affordable costs that render the use of coal far safer and easier for the environment. The method of extraction can be also similarly settled for good by weighing all the pros and cons. What is most important is to be decisive and start work right away in using the coal reserves to meet the country's present energy needs and to build energy security. But the development of the country's coalfields have practically been put on hold as the coal policy has not been operationalised, despite the fact that the country has since long been suffering from a severe energy crisis.
This dilly-dallying is completely unacceptable. All hurdles on the path of immediate start up of works to effectively use coal for power production, need to start immediately on top gears.