Silly, not to use coal
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Abu Rushd
WHEN economic activities in Bangladesh have slowed down due to energy shortage, it is absurd not to use its 2.5 billion tons of coal high grade coal buried underground. A futile bickering over the manner of its extraction is unnecessarily delaying the use of the energy source.
The indecision on coal extraction prompted by the controversy has been impeding economic growth. But for the economic slowdown during the tenure of the emergency caretaker administration and the preceding political unrest, the country's economic growth could have been higher by several percentage points if only energy supply matched the demand.
The serious shortage of gas and power has resulted in underproduction in existing enterprises and discouraged expansion. This continues to delay production by newly established industries and frustrate new investment plans.
That the proven reserves of gas in the country will reportedly be exhausted in 15 years unless new reserves are found, as the experts say, should be a wake-up call. The policy planners in the government need to be proactive, losing no time, to start the utilisation of coal. An indecision continues to aggravate power crunch, crippling the economy.
A needless hassle that unclean coal to fire the power stations would pollute the environment has been costing the economy much. Why forget that coal continues to be a major source of power in neighbouring India. Australia uses coal for its power generation as do a large number of other countries. Even the UK gets a substantiated share of its energy from coal -fired power stations.
Clean energy is more a utopia than reality. The point is that a rapidly developing country like Bangladesh must develop an energy source which is economical and at the same time meets the reasonable standards of environmental protection. Bangladesh's large coal deposits, reportedly equivalent to some 60 trillion tcf of gas, would meet both the criteria.
It is more important now to be decisive to start work right away in exploiting the coal reserves to meet the country's energy needs. But the extraction of coal from the existing colieries of the country awaits the adoption of a coal policy while the economy continues to suffer from a severe energy crisis.
Any further delay is completely unacceptable. The hurdles on the path of the use coal for power production, need to be removed immediately and on a priority basis.
WHEN economic activities in Bangladesh have slowed down due to energy shortage, it is absurd not to use its 2.5 billion tons of coal high grade coal buried underground. A futile bickering over the manner of its extraction is unnecessarily delaying the use of the energy source.
The indecision on coal extraction prompted by the controversy has been impeding economic growth. But for the economic slowdown during the tenure of the emergency caretaker administration and the preceding political unrest, the country's economic growth could have been higher by several percentage points if only energy supply matched the demand.
The serious shortage of gas and power has resulted in underproduction in existing enterprises and discouraged expansion. This continues to delay production by newly established industries and frustrate new investment plans.
That the proven reserves of gas in the country will reportedly be exhausted in 15 years unless new reserves are found, as the experts say, should be a wake-up call. The policy planners in the government need to be proactive, losing no time, to start the utilisation of coal. An indecision continues to aggravate power crunch, crippling the economy.
A needless hassle that unclean coal to fire the power stations would pollute the environment has been costing the economy much. Why forget that coal continues to be a major source of power in neighbouring India. Australia uses coal for its power generation as do a large number of other countries. Even the UK gets a substantiated share of its energy from coal -fired power stations.
Clean energy is more a utopia than reality. The point is that a rapidly developing country like Bangladesh must develop an energy source which is economical and at the same time meets the reasonable standards of environmental protection. Bangladesh's large coal deposits, reportedly equivalent to some 60 trillion tcf of gas, would meet both the criteria.
It is more important now to be decisive to start work right away in exploiting the coal reserves to meet the country's energy needs. But the extraction of coal from the existing colieries of the country awaits the adoption of a coal policy while the economy continues to suffer from a severe energy crisis.
Any further delay is completely unacceptable. The hurdles on the path of the use coal for power production, need to be removed immediately and on a priority basis.