Using solar power to lessen reliance on fossil fuel

Bangladesh, having abundant solar energy, receives twice the amount of sun than most European countries do. The private sector has already realised and capitalised on this. Even the International Renewable Energy Agency report says the number of solar-powered homes in Bangladesh has increased from 25,000 to 2.8 million in last 10 years.
Viewed against this backdrop, the government needs to increase more the share of renewable energy with appropriate policies to stimulate changes. The government, like those in Tanzania and India, needs to take advantage of the declining cost of many renewable energy technologies, changes in oil prices, and other factors, which all support the continuing increase in the use of renewable energy.
Happily, renewable energy is already playing a prominent role making our country the abode of the sixth largest renewable energy related workforce. Almost 114,000 jobs have been created in this industry for installing, maintaining and repairing solar panels. Evidently, this sector is already on its way to boost our economy. All we just need is to identify the barriers in the renewable energy paths and be part of the revolutionary movement to make this sector the main source of energy supply in our country. However, to support this movement, the government has to play more aggressive role in this regard to close the gap between affordability of people and price of renewable energy.
A few weeks ago an article in the international news section grabbed our attention. The news item read, "1 million solar homes project announced by President of Tanzania." Now Tanzania, just like Bangladesh, is a low-income country with 28 per cent of the population under the poverty line. Its economy is growing at around 7 per cent per annum, political situation is unstable and the country has newly discovered natural gas. So, when a country, with similar conditions like Bangladesh, takes such a bold and expensive initiative to get solar power to one million homes, our country, without making heavy investment in fossil fuels, should innovate ways to reach solar energy to the doorsteps of millions in rural and urban areas.
Being students of environmental studies, we know the importance of renewable energy, and why it is hard for developing countries to implement. Renewable energy is important and is growing fast. Some years ago, back in the early 2000s, the total fraction of wind and solar was 0.2 per cent. However, it will reach or break the 10 per cent threshold by the next few years. Renewable energy sources are diverse, cannot be exhausted, do not pollute the environment, and play an important role in mitigating climate change. Renewable energy is nothing like its counterpart (non-renewable energy), which cannot be replenished, emits greenhouse gases during combustion and has high environmental impacts. But with so many benefits, one might ask why did Tanzania's initiative to implement renewable energy catch our eyes, or, why don't we use renewable energy all the time. The reason is that renewable energy is expensive, or at least it was expensive.
Wind turbine prices have fallen by 29 per cent since 2008, and about 50 per cent since 1990 (Fig 1). And, solar power prices have fallen off a cliff in recent years, as it can be observed in Fig 2. And, Fig 3 compares the price history of solar energy to conventional energy sources.

As seen in Fig 3, even though it still costs more money to make electricity from wind or sun, Tanzania's example gives evidence that a new era is dawning. While the renewable energy share of global energy consumption is still relatively small, its use has been increasing rapidly in recent years. What was once common only in developed countries like Denmark, France, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and the USA can now be seen in developing countries too. Statistics reveal that developing countries, collectively, shared 53 per cent of global renewable energy power generation capacity in 2009. Even our neighbouring country, India, is planning to achieve 100 gigawatts of electricity from solar power by 2022. So if other developing countries can harvest power from cleaner sources of energy, why not us?
If we make the cost-benefit analysis of both the energy sources it might occur to us that cost of installation of renewable energy might be greater than extraction cost of nonrenewable sources. However, renewable energy is more technology-dependent sector and the price of technology always goes down. On the contrary, the cost of extraction always goes up in the extraction industries. In the context of our country, more markets should be created for solar system to make it more a profitable industry to lower cost down.
The government has already taken initiatives towards renewable energy like framing the 'Renewable Energy Policy of Bangladesh, which envisions 5 per cent power from renewable energy sources by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2020. In addition, the government is mandated to install solar panels on the rooftops of new high-rise building aiming to generate 340 megawatts of electricity from them. While, at this moment, it might seem cheaper to invest in coal- powered plants, experts and analysts predict that the benefits of lower energy prices will be offset by other rebounding effects like price hikes in coal, and environmental degradations, all of which will be irreversible in nature.
Clearly there are two roads open for us- one is to depend on limited dwindling fossil fuel stocks which are damaging our climate and affecting our health and another one way is to opt for the clean, booming energy which is not only benefitting us economically but also making our society and environment sustainable.
Asif Ibne Yousuf  is a Lecturer of the North-South University, and Nuzhat Nuarey Mithila is a student of economics in the same university