The government has decided to include an eight-hour battery storage system in the proposed 442-megawatt peak solar power project at Rampal in Bagerhat following Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s directive to ensure storage capacity with new renewable energy projects.
State Minister for Planning Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki said the battery storage component, initially considered for four hours, was extended to eight hours at Wednesday’s meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
“The Prime Minister has directed that battery storage capacity must be included. So, the project’s DPP will be revised to include eight hours of battery storage,” he said while briefing reporters after the ECNEC meeting at the NEC conference room.
The proposed Tk 2,502.39 crore “Construction of 442 MWp (DC) Solar Photovoltaic Grid-Connected Power Plant at Block-B, Rampal” project was approved by the ECNEC on Wednesday.
Saki said the solar plant had initially been planned to feed electricity directly into the national grid without a battery storage facility. The Power Division had been preparing a separate project for the storage component, based on an initial four-hour storage capacity.
“Now, the decision is that the battery storage will be incorporated into this project itself,” he said.
The state minister said the cost of the project will have to be recalculated because of the increase in battery storage capacity from four to eight hours.
According to the project proposal, the estimated generation cost was around Tk 6 per unit without battery storage, while it would have risen to around Tk 9 per unit with four-hour storage.
Saki said the final cost will depend on the revised estimate for the eight-hour storage system.
The Planning Commission placed the project before the ECNEC with an estimated cost of Tk 2,502.39 crore. Of the amount, Tk 375.35 crore will come from the Bangladesh Power Development Board’s own resources and Tk 2,127.03 crore from the Power Sector Development Fund.
The project will be implemented by BPDB from July 2026 to December 2029 on 685 acres of usable land in Block-B of the Rampal power plant complex.
The solar plant will comprise solar panels, inverter stations, a pooling substation, power evacuation facilities and other civil works. Electricity will be converted to 230kV and evacuated through an approximately three-kilometre long 230kV double-circuit transmission line to the adjacent Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd (BIFPCL) 400/230kV substation.
Saki said the solar project is being taken forward as a green energy project and is intended to replace the proposed use of Block-B for another fossil-fuel-based power generation facility.
He said the environmental assessment and clearance process for the solar project is also progressing.
The project was initially examined through an in-house feasibility study by BPDB in March 2022. A detailed feasibility study was later completed by Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company (IIFC), a government-owned institution, in May 2025.
Bangladesh currently has 32,332MW of power generation capacity, of which renewable sources account for 1,216MW, or 3.76 percent, according to the project proposal.
The government has set a target of raising renewable energy’s share of the overall energy mix to 20 percent by 2030.
The proposal says the Rampal solar plant will help diversify the country’s energy sources, reduce dependence on gas, oil and coal, and cut carbon emissions.
Saki also said recently approved private-sector solar power projects have involved tariffs ranging from Tk 8 to Tk 12 per unit, although the tariff for the Rampal project will be determined after its revised cost estimate.