Experts skeptical of target on power from renewable energy

Munima Sultana | Published: March 30, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Bangladesh has failed to achieve any tangible success in the renewable energy sector as it could add only 2.0 per cent of power to the national grid in this particular area after a decade of efforts.
In view of the present rate of success experts have expressed their doubts about fulfillment of the target to raise the level of power generation from renewable energy to 5.0 per cent by 2015. The target was set in the renewable energy policy.
Sources say only 130 megawatts of renewable energy are now produced in the country, mostly from the solar source. The Power Division has set a target to produce 500 mw by 2015.
Due to the failure to meet the renewable energy generation target, they say the government now includes the 250 mw of power produced at the country's lone and age-old Kaptai hydro power plant while calculating the total power generation from renewable energy.
"Many countries consider hydro power as a renewable energy source. So, the hydro power from the Kaptai plant is now added to the total generation," said an official of the Power Cell preferring not to be named.
He said with the addition, the target of five per cent power generation from renewable energy by 2015 would be possible.
According to the Power Cell, the highest 115 mw solar power is coming from solar home systems (SHSs). The cell counts 11 mw of power from a solar PV installed at every new building. Of other renewable energy sources, energy efficiency efforts at government offices and agencies fetch 3.0 mw.
The share of power from other sources like wind, biomass, biogas and solar irrigation are very low-1.0 mw, 0.1 mw and 0.3 mw respectively.
The Power Cell official said as the installation cost of renewable energy devices remained still high, it could not be popularised among the people.
The government has initiated a plan to generate five per cent of the total power from renewable energy sources by 2015 setting a target to meet the demand for 800 mw by that year. It has also set a target to increase the renewable energy to 10 per cent by 2020 which is 2000 mw.
To meet the target, the government initiated a 500mw solar power programme in accordance with the Asian Development Bank's vision to generate 3,000 mw of solar power in the Asia-Pacific region by 2013.
Experts said initially it was assumed that the country had enormous solar energy, but due to high installation costs and the lack of efforts to make it cheaper, the target of solar power generation could also not be achieved.
It was shown in the renewable energy policy that the potential of solar energy was enormous having the average daily solar radiation of 4-6.5 kWh/m2.
Though some experts assume that the country's wind potential is high in coastal and offshore islands, some studies on the wind mapping could not see the due success.
The experts, however, say the wind mapping is a continuous process and time consuming as it has to find the right height, the wind direction and air density for almost a year before assessing the energy generation capacity.
In the policy the hydro-power potential has been assessed at 500 mw, biomass gasification 300 mw and biogas 350 mw. No assessment was made on the geothermal and sea wave power potential.
The government has also an estimation to create 50,000 green jobs and earn US$ 3.0 million per year in carbon credit from the western world.
Though most of the solar power comes from solar home systems, officials say the scope of generating power from solar water pumping systems, solar hybrid solution, rooftop solution and solar PV installation could not be tapped properly.
The officials say the country's share of renewable energy did not increase due to the commercial users' disinterest.
The government fixed its target to generate 500 mw power mainly in the commercial sector and 160 mw under social solar power projects.
Renewable energy-related activities are being carried out in the country with financing from the government's climate change trust fund as well as the financiers like World Bank, Asian Development Bank and KOICA.
The power cell said the government could not make any headway in operating the solar irrigation pumps which were targeted to generate 150 mw. Besides, solar power generation in industrial units was also frustrating even after introduction of green banking.