State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said that Bangladesh is committed to increasing its share of renewable energy in power generation in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
He made the remarks on Thursday while addressing virtually a function marking the signing of a contract between the state-owned Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh Limited (EGCB) and the Japanese firm Marubeni Corporation for Implementing a 100 MW solar power plant at Sonagazi in Fenni.
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As per the memorandum of understanding (MOU), the PGCB and Marubeni will set up the plant with each having 50 percent equity share in the project.
Japanese Ambassador in Bangladesh Naoki Ito, Power Secretary Habibur Rahman, and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Chairman Belayet Hossain also addressed the function, presided over by EGCB Chairman and additional secretary of Power Division Sheikh Faezul Amin.
The State Minister said Bangladesh has already set a target to generate 10 percent of electricity from green energy under the national policy on renewable energy.
He thanked Japanese ambassador for his country’s support to tie up with the EGCB to implement the project.
The Japanese ambassador termed the MOU as the beginning of a successful cooperation between the two countries in the renewable energy sector.
“Japan will continue to collaborate with Bangladesh in its effort to meet energy demand to achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG) to fulfil the Vision 2040”, he added.
Meanwhile, EGCB Managing Director Arun Kumar Saha told UNB that the plant is planned to be set up on 350 acres of land.
“Now we will conduct a feasibility study on the project and then proceed on the basis of the study findings”, he told UNB.
He noted that EGCB has 1000 acres of land in Sonagazi Economic Zone area where there is a plan to set up a combined cycle power plant and another two more solar power plants- one 100 MW and a 50 MW.
Available data shows the country now has the generation capacity of over 21,000 MW from conventional sources while power from renewable sources is lagging far behind at 700.61 MW, which is around 3 percent of the total generation capacity.
Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) shows that among different renewable energy sources, PV solar leads the sector with 466.68 MW generation capacity, while it is followed by hydro with 230 MW capacity, 2.9 MW from wind, 0.63 MW from Bio-gas and 0.4 MW from Biomass.
Energy experts say Bangladesh is far behind Pakistan and India, among its South Asian neighbours, in utilising renewable energy resources for electricity generation.
The PSMP stipulates for 35 per cent power generation from imported LNG (liquefied natural gas), some 35 per cent from imported coal, 15 per cent from renewable energy, 10 per cent from nuclear energy and five per cent from petroleum oil by 2041, when the country’s generation is expected to reach 60,000 MW.