European Union and its other financial institutions including European Investment Bank (EIB) have expressed keen interest to finance the country’s green energy and energy efficiency projects.  

They expressed their interest during the launch of the Team Europe Initiative on Green Energy Transition (TEI GET) in Bangladesh at a virtual function on Wednesday (June 23, 2021) in the city.

Welcoming the launch of the TEI GET, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said Bangladesh has set a target to generate 40 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2040.

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“We want technological and financial support from the EU to achieve the goal with its huge experience in the field”, he said.

The function was also addressed by Rensje Teerink, Ambassador of the EU Delegation, head of cooperation of German Embassy Caren Blume, European Investment Bank representative Donal Cannon and German agency FfW’s representative Anirben Kundu, and Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) Chairman Mohammad Alauddin.   

It was informed that TEI GET is one of two flagships of the international Team Europe approach, which provides strategic European responses to the challenges faced by Europe`s partner countries.

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The current amount of activities of TEI GET adds up to EUR 930.6million (equivalent to around Tk 9378.7crore) to promote investment in green energy and energy efficiency projects.

In Bangladesh, the Team Europe initiative on Green Energy Transition is co-chaired by Germany and the Delegation of the European Union (EU).

It aims at supporting Bangladesh to build a power system that leads to maximum coverage of the country’s energy demand through renewable energy. It also intends to reduce CO2 emissions, energy consumption and demand through energy efficiency.

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Nasrul Hamid said Bangladesh took up 52 solar projects and only 3-4 were implemented due to various obstacles including high cost, and scarcity in lands.

“But Bangladesh is very much committed to achieve the renewable energy target and has already dropped some coal-fired power plants from the implementation list as a move to reduce dependency to fossil fuel”, he said.

He said technology is changing so fast and  cost is coming down will help Bangladesh to achieve the new goal.

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Rensje Teerink said the Team Europe initiative draws on the wealth of Team Europe’s expertise in Renewable Energy.

“It pulls resources together and provides an opportunity to combine the most appropriate mix of implementing modalities to obtain maximum results. It shows that multilateralism works”, she added.

The EIB representative said trans-border electricity transmission, energy storage and energy efficiency projects could be potential areas of investment.

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“But the projects must be designed appropriately maintaining international standards to attract investment from the EIB”, he added.