Writing

Possibility of Solar Power Plant in Bangladesh

Published 2021-03-24

Introduction

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect.

A solar power plant is based on the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses, mirrors, and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics converts light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.^[1] The largest photovoltaic power plant in the world is the 354 MW Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) CSP installation located in the Mojave Desert, California. Other large CSP plants include the 250 MW Agua Caliente Solar Project in Arizona.^[2], the Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW, 250 MW when finished),^[3] and the Andasol solar power station (150 MW), both in Spain.

BACKGROUND

Bangladesh is a small country of 1.44 lakh square kilometer but the immense population of over 160 million makes it the country with the most population density in the world. As a country located in Southern hemisphere with a sea at the South side, Bangladesh should have had no problem with abundant sunlight. And no problem it has indeed. But it’s one thing to be a sunny country and another thing to be able to harness it properly to channel it in making energy.
Bangladesh lacks there and for some obvious reasons.

Experts and advocates of solar power have long been terming it as the most viable renewable energy option for the country’s ever increasing electricity sector which largely is met by gas as of now. But reality is- making solar energy a primary source for large scale electricity production is going to be very tough under the present context.

Besides, as a developing country thriving to achieve middle income status, Bangladesh is going to be needed around 34000 MW of electricity by 2030. The current installed capacity of the country is 10289 MW. The daily power generation in Bangladesh is around 7,000 MW, while the daily peak demand is around 8,500 MW.

It’s a long way to hit that mark and experts in the sector said that solar power cannot be the vehicle to ride there.

Solar power plant in the perspective of Bangladesh

The problem with solar power is that it requires a lot of area. Suppose, for producing one mega watt (MW) of electricity with standard 250 watt panels, about 4000 panels are needed. Now if each panels requires 17.6 sq ft, then for producing one mega watt of electricity, 5 acres of land is usually needed.
That means for a 100MW power plant, 500 acres of land is needed just to place the solar panel (more lands will be required to establish the transmitting and plant facilities). The problem is, that’s a good amount of land and most importantly that’s hard to find in such a populous country like Bangladesh.

So far, the picture doesn’t look bright but there are silver linings of course. For example, a two bigha plot in a remote island named ‘Paratoli’ in Narshingdi shines enough to stave off the cloud of doubt on solar power.

The island hosts the largest (141 KW) solar grid plant of the country and the plant now provides connections to 613 families and lighten up the life of nearly 5,000 people with the establishment of nine kilometre long transmission line. It has the capacity to supply uninterrupted electricity to 724 households and 124 small scale commercial establishments. The cost of total project is only Tk 6 crore.
The solar powered grid in Narshingdi is not the only one. Earlier, the nation’s first commercial solar mini-grid was established in the coastal island of Sandwip in Bangladesh three years ago with the financing from Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL-also one of the financer of Paratoli plant). That pioneering experience has become a learning platform for other investors, financing and developing agencies, in addition to policy makers to promote solar mini-grid system. After the Sandwip experience, it was realized that similar application of solar mini-grids for the vast number of rural markets in off-grid locations can offer significant improvement in socio-economic conditions of such underserved population.
Ironically, people residing in remote locations of Bangladesh pay one of the highest rates for electricity from diesel-powered micro-grids. Surveys showed that, depending upon the type of appliance being used, daily rates being converted to tariff ranged from Tk 46-76 per unit. So based upon tariff prior to solar electrification, financial analysis and project financing criteria of IDCOL, a tariff of Tk 30-32 per unit was set so that rural people can afford it.
The government has plans to establish 50 such plants by 2018 and if it will take place, it will obviously ease the pressure of national grid. Aside from these solar powered plants, the Solar Home Systems (SHSs) that power rural households is another success story.
About 3.8 million SHSs have been installed so far now which generate a total of 135MW of electricity and benefit 13 million people. However, about 50 million rural Bangladeshis still lack electricity, prompting IDCOL to commission the financing of six million SHSs by 2017. As recently as 2014, the World Bank, spurred by the success of the SHS program, offered the government USD 78.4 million to finance 480,000 SHSs.
The current government is a strong advocate of solar power, and as a result, the industry has been a big beneficiary of its support. Directly, the government allows companies to import solar panels free of duties, provides loans and grants to POs through IDCOL and even offers refinancing options. Further, companies that manufacture solar modules or those that use solar modules to contribute solar power to the national grid are privy to tax benefits and feed-in tariffs. Indirectly, the government lends its weight to POs to help them navigate the socio-political nuances of rural municipalities; it also ensures that IDCOL is not tangled in red tape—a fact that has contributed considerably to the programme's success.

CONCLUSION

All these successes prove that-solar power is in-fact a very viable energy option for Bangladesh. Of course, it can’t act as a base load power source but then again small bits of anything eventually turn out to be large. Bangladesh could walk in that path.

References:

Assignment prepared by

Md.Sakib Ullah Sourav