Solar power potentials of Bangladesh
Sunday, 4 November 2007
Ferdous Alam
THE major urban centres in Bangladesh get conventional electricity from the national grid. The rural areas where electricity is provided, also depend mostly on supplies from the national grid. The urban areas get priority for such supply. As the bulk of the inadequate produce of electricity is given to urban centres, people in the rural areas suffer from perennial shortage.
Making the rural areas gradually self sufficient, using the best option of solar power generations, could bring the situation to an end. Rural areas of Natore showed recently how 50,000 people there are benefiting from solar power. Apart from the erratic supply from the national grid troubling the villagers, it could take long for many rural areas to get connected to the national grid. It would take vast resources and lot of time would have to be mobilised for setting up infrastructures for transmitting conventional electricity to these areas. For such places, solar power remains the best option as no one knows when the grid, needing time and vast resource mobilisation, will reach the unconnected areas. But a house in a remote village can get the needed of electricity from a single solar panel set up on its roof top.
Access to electricity in Bangladesh is among the lowest in the world with around 30 per cent of the total population getting it. The rural areas where nearly 80 per cent of the population live remain deprived.
Tapping different alternative energy sources can benefit the people. The government is committed to extending the coverage of electricity to the whole country under the year 2020. But extension of supply through nation-wide grid expansion is not a viable option for the foreseeable future mainly due to inaccessibility. There are areas in the country where electricity from the national grid will be difficult to reach in 30 years. At the current rate of conventional electrification, some experts say, it will take decades to provide the entire population access to electricity. Sunshine provides the country favourable natural condition for production of electricity on a regular basis and throughout the rural Bangladesh. To fulfil the commitment of universal electrification, this alternative source has a vital role to pay.
THE major urban centres in Bangladesh get conventional electricity from the national grid. The rural areas where electricity is provided, also depend mostly on supplies from the national grid. The urban areas get priority for such supply. As the bulk of the inadequate produce of electricity is given to urban centres, people in the rural areas suffer from perennial shortage.
Making the rural areas gradually self sufficient, using the best option of solar power generations, could bring the situation to an end. Rural areas of Natore showed recently how 50,000 people there are benefiting from solar power. Apart from the erratic supply from the national grid troubling the villagers, it could take long for many rural areas to get connected to the national grid. It would take vast resources and lot of time would have to be mobilised for setting up infrastructures for transmitting conventional electricity to these areas. For such places, solar power remains the best option as no one knows when the grid, needing time and vast resource mobilisation, will reach the unconnected areas. But a house in a remote village can get the needed of electricity from a single solar panel set up on its roof top.
Access to electricity in Bangladesh is among the lowest in the world with around 30 per cent of the total population getting it. The rural areas where nearly 80 per cent of the population live remain deprived.
Tapping different alternative energy sources can benefit the people. The government is committed to extending the coverage of electricity to the whole country under the year 2020. But extension of supply through nation-wide grid expansion is not a viable option for the foreseeable future mainly due to inaccessibility. There are areas in the country where electricity from the national grid will be difficult to reach in 30 years. At the current rate of conventional electrification, some experts say, it will take decades to provide the entire population access to electricity. Sunshine provides the country favourable natural condition for production of electricity on a regular basis and throughout the rural Bangladesh. To fulfil the commitment of universal electrification, this alternative source has a vital role to pay.