MoA directs departments to use renewable energy

Rezaul Karim The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has again directed all its departments to prepare action plans to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuel, official sources said. Each department will have to draw up proposals according to their action plans which will have to be sent to the ministry soon. The decision was taken at a co-ordination meeting held recently at the ministry. All the departments of the MoA has to take the initiative to bring at least a part of their infrastructure under renewable energy, the co-ordination meeting minutes that was made available to the FE, mentioned. "We are heavily dependant on fossil fuels, i.e., oil, natural gas and coal. Fossil fuels are consumed much faster than produced. The world's energy reserve is being depleted at an alarming rate and in future we might run out of all types of fossil fuel," a deputy secretary of the ministry told the FE. "Renewable energy is the future source of energy. So we should go for alternative sources for energy. Alternative energy concept is gaining popularity in our country. There are boundless possibilities of using solar energy to solve the world's energy crisis," he said. Earlier, the MoA had asked all its departments to submit action plans for use of renewable energy. But they failed to submit the plans, an official of the MoA said. Disbursements of funds for financing projects in some areas of renewable energy, with the support of different banks, witnessed a satisfactory increase since its inception, thanks to initiatives taken by Bangladesh Bank in tandem with a number of scheduled banks, central bank sources said. The renewable energy scheme has been undertaken in line with the government's plan to meet 5 per cent of the total demand for electricity of the country from green energy by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2020. At present, renewable energy represents 1.5 per cent of the country's total power consumption with 1.3 million solar home systems and 45,000 bio-gas plants. About 78mw power is being generated in the country from solar system, which is the main component of renewable energy.