The government has taken initiatives for green development in Bangladesh. As part of it, 10 proposed coal-fired power plants were scrapped.
However, the scrapping of the proposed plants will not have any significant impact on the country’s overall electricity generation capacity, power division official said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approved a proposal on June 21 to scrap 10 coal-fired power plants having an estimated capacity of 9346 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The coal-fired power plants were estimated to have the capacity to generate 9346 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
However, one more coal-based power plant might be added to the list as the fate of the 1320MW- Mirsharai coal-fired plant will be decided by a cabinet committee.
The government has also decided to convert some of those power plants into LNG and renewable ones.
The scrapped coal-fired projects include three proposed plants in the private sector, four in the public sector and three joint-venture projects.
The scrapped projects are Munshiganj 522MW project in Dhaka, two 282MW projects owned by Orion Group in Dhaka and Chattogram, 1,320MW in Moheskhali, 1,320MW Ashuganj plant in Patuakhali, 1,200MW in Gaibandha and 1200MW phase-2 Matarbari Power Plant in the public sector, 700MW Singapore-Bangladesh joint-venture, 1,200MW CPGCL- Sumitomo Corporation joint-venture, and a proposed 1,320MW Bangladesh-Malaysia joint venture.
‘Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) lauded the decision for scrapping the proposed 10 coal-fired power plants. Besides, TIB has called for necessary steps to increase investment in the sector to achieve the target of 100 per cent renewable energy generation by 2050,’ according to a statement on Saturday.
Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon welcomed the scrapping of the 10 coal-fired power plant projects, saying that it is a big step towards achieving the goal of sustainable development.
"We demand the government make a road map to scrap all coal-fired power plants in phases," according to the statement.
The statement said the LNG also has a negative impact on the environment and urged the government to move towards renewable energy.
According to Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the country’s grid connected power generation capacity is 21,060MW right now. Of these, 1688MW is being generated from coal, 10,880MW from gas, 5687MW from furnace oil, 1286MW from diesel, 230MW from hydro, 129MW from solar and 1160MW power is being added as imported to national grid.
The government has set target to generate between 10,000MW and 12,000MW of electricity from coal by 2030.
Earlier, the government has taken 17 coal-fired power projects to generate around 17,000 megawatts of electricity by 2030.
Of them, Payra 1,320MW power plant is generating electricity. It is a Bangladesh-China joint venture. Physical work is in progress for the 1,320MW plant in Rampal, 1,224MW in Chattogram, 307MW in Barguna, and 1,200MW in Matarbari and 1,200MW in Cox's Bazar.
Before Payra, a 525MW plant in Barapukuria, Dinajpur, was the country's only coal-fired plant.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been elected president of the ‘Climate Vulnerable Forum’. The forum members want to ensure 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 in their own countries.
The government has taken initiatives to enhance generation of renewable energy as part of its efforts to ensure energy security keeping carbon dioxide emissions at a low level.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said renewable energy would be the main fuel in future. It would ensure future energy security. According to the power system master plan, the share of renewable energy in the fuel mix is increasing. Some 40 percent of electricity will come from renewable energy by 2041.
Mohammad Alauddin, Chairman of the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority, told the Bangladesh Post, “The whole world is now going for renewable energy. The Bangladesh government is also more interested in this regard. Several initiatives such as implementation of solar net metering policy, installation of solar mini grid, home system and irrigation pumps etc. have been taken. Several solar power plants are being planned. Besides, a survey has been done on wind power. We are also planning how to expand it in a profitable way.”
So far, around six million Solar Home Systems (SHS) have been set up in remote areas across the country, which is currently directly and indirectly benefiting about three crore disadvantaged rural people. This is the largest and most globally renowned Solar Program.
Dipal Chandra Barua, President of Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association (BSREA) told Bangladesh Post, “We can generate at least 2,000 MW of electricity by 2021 from solar irrigation pumps and rooftop solar panels alone. By doing so, the goal of generating electricity from renewable energy within the next year will be achieved effortlessly.”
According to research reports from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States and the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, it is possible to generate 53,000 to 156,000 megawatts of electricity from solar power in Bangladesh alone. Besides, 1.5 lakh MW can be generated from windmills, 3,500 MW from biogas.
“There are some countries like Albania, Congo, Costa Rica, Iceland, Paraguay, Norway, Ethiopia, Namibia, Paraguay and Uruguay, have already generated 100 percent renewable electricity, said U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“Bangladesh has attained outstanding success in the field of green energy as it secured the second position in producing renewable energy (RE), especially off-grid solar solutions,” according to REN21's Renewables 2020 Global Status Report (GSR).
“If renewable energy-based power plants were built instead of the world's 500,000 megawatts of coal-fired power plants, it would save $23 billion a year and reduce carbon emissions by 180 billion tonnes. In that case, the world's total carbon emissions will be reduced by five percent.”
According to the IRENA report, currently the generation cost per unit of solar power plants is on an average 6.8 cent (Tk 5.78). The generation cost of wind power is 5.3 cents (Tk 4.50) on land and 11.5 cents (Tk 9.77) at sea. However, the generation cost of newly solar power plants will be 3.9 cents (Tk 3.31), which is 43 percent less than the cost in 2019.
‘In 2010, per unit generation cost of a solar power plant was $4,695, which was only $995 in 2019. The land-based wind power plant construction cost in 2010 was $1,849, which is now at $1473,’ according to the report.