The renewable energy option
Monday, 9 June 2008
The prevailing power crisis is going from bad to worse about everyday. For the few ageing generation units are unable to meet the ever-growing power needs of the country. What is worse, the conventional ways of establishing new power generation units are both costly and time-consuming.
It is against this backdrop that the government is now seriously thinking about alternative means to meet the crisis. Falling back upon the renewable sources of energy is one such alternative. In certain areas, the technology to tap one source of such energy, the inexhaustible supply of sun's rays, for example, is already at hand. The technology is in use in some rural areas with the help of solar panels to harvest sunlight and convert this form of energy into electricity and then preserve it into solar batteries.
Now that the power crisis has come to a head with relentless load-shedding making life unbearable, the scramble for the alternative sources of power has also heightened. It is being given serious thought at the government level that even in the urban areas, the solar power can partially meet the domestic power needs. For example, if the high-rise buildings could be fitted with solar panels, those could meet a modest part of the daily needs of power at the residential quarters as well as the government and business offices. It is worthwhile to note that bathed in boundless showers of sunshine, Bangladesh is ideally suited to opt for this alternative.
The power ministry has already taken up the issue seriously and asked the power cell to come up with a guideline for a building code so that the newly built high-rise buildings might have the necessary in-built features to host solar panels for harvesting sun's rays to convert those into electricity immediately.
Hopefully, the department concerned in the power ministry will formulate the necessary policy for tapping the various sources of renewable energy as well as develop the building code for the purpose without much delay so that as envisaged it can be made mandatory for any tall building going to be constructed in the urban as well non-urban areas of the country. Understandably, the argument for this urgency need not be overemphasized.
While giving the highest priority to this issue of constructing buildings equipped with solar panels for supplying electricity, it has also to be kept in mind that the technology for converting sunlight into electricity is a highly sophisticated one. And in that case, the country will have to depend on the foreign suppliers of the solar panel and solar battery for the purpose until the time when Bangladesh is advanced enough to produce these ingredients by itself. But in the meanwhile, we will have to make do and address the acute power shortage with whatever means is just around the corner.
At the same time, efforts should also be on to search for other indigenous alternatives of renewable energy so that not only the tall buildings of the urban areas, other less exclusive or more plebian users of power may also meet part of their power needs from the various renewable sources, such as biogas, wind power, ocean waves and the like.
For meeting the needs of the less classy users of power including the residential as well as commercial ones both in the urban areas and the countryside, a private-public partnership will be necessary. Installation of facilities for generating power from biogas or wind needs capital and technology. Apart from this, the banks can be encouraged by the government to provide funds to the private entrepreneurs willing to set up such power plants from renewable sources both in the larger and smaller scales. These steps will help develop the domestic base for providing the common users easy access to the local resources of renewable energy.
It is against this backdrop that the government is now seriously thinking about alternative means to meet the crisis. Falling back upon the renewable sources of energy is one such alternative. In certain areas, the technology to tap one source of such energy, the inexhaustible supply of sun's rays, for example, is already at hand. The technology is in use in some rural areas with the help of solar panels to harvest sunlight and convert this form of energy into electricity and then preserve it into solar batteries.
Now that the power crisis has come to a head with relentless load-shedding making life unbearable, the scramble for the alternative sources of power has also heightened. It is being given serious thought at the government level that even in the urban areas, the solar power can partially meet the domestic power needs. For example, if the high-rise buildings could be fitted with solar panels, those could meet a modest part of the daily needs of power at the residential quarters as well as the government and business offices. It is worthwhile to note that bathed in boundless showers of sunshine, Bangladesh is ideally suited to opt for this alternative.
The power ministry has already taken up the issue seriously and asked the power cell to come up with a guideline for a building code so that the newly built high-rise buildings might have the necessary in-built features to host solar panels for harvesting sun's rays to convert those into electricity immediately.
Hopefully, the department concerned in the power ministry will formulate the necessary policy for tapping the various sources of renewable energy as well as develop the building code for the purpose without much delay so that as envisaged it can be made mandatory for any tall building going to be constructed in the urban as well non-urban areas of the country. Understandably, the argument for this urgency need not be overemphasized.
While giving the highest priority to this issue of constructing buildings equipped with solar panels for supplying electricity, it has also to be kept in mind that the technology for converting sunlight into electricity is a highly sophisticated one. And in that case, the country will have to depend on the foreign suppliers of the solar panel and solar battery for the purpose until the time when Bangladesh is advanced enough to produce these ingredients by itself. But in the meanwhile, we will have to make do and address the acute power shortage with whatever means is just around the corner.
At the same time, efforts should also be on to search for other indigenous alternatives of renewable energy so that not only the tall buildings of the urban areas, other less exclusive or more plebian users of power may also meet part of their power needs from the various renewable sources, such as biogas, wind power, ocean waves and the like.
For meeting the needs of the less classy users of power including the residential as well as commercial ones both in the urban areas and the countryside, a private-public partnership will be necessary. Installation of facilities for generating power from biogas or wind needs capital and technology. Apart from this, the banks can be encouraged by the government to provide funds to the private entrepreneurs willing to set up such power plants from renewable sources both in the larger and smaller scales. These steps will help develop the domestic base for providing the common users easy access to the local resources of renewable energy.