Govt needs to prioritise clean energy

PROGRESS in solar power development is not satisfactory enough for Bangladesh to reach its target of generating 10 per cent of the total electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Bangladesh’s installed solar power capacity is only 415.68MW, which means that an additional 1,600MW needs to be produced from renewable sources in the next four years to attain the goal. In a webinar that the Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association organised on Sunday, stakeholders suggested that the government should incentivise green energy schemes to ensure the sectoral growth. The planning minister emphasised the role of the central bank in making easy loans available for entrepreneurs interested in green energy. The bank’s deputy governor recognised its role and highlighted the importance of informing banks of the significance of financing green energy. The president of the association as well as the renewable energy authorities said that the main challenge for the industry was the high-interest loans. The government needs to prioritise the renewable energy sector and review its financing guidelines to create a more enabling environment for entrepreneurs and investors.

The address of the planning minister also hints at the contradiction in energy policy. He highlights the dependency on fossil fuel, coal and nuclear power which are hazardous to the environment and public health. To ensure a greater access to power, the government has relied on both economically and environmentally costly methods of power generation. The quick rental power plant, a high-cost temporary solution, was introduced to address the immediate power shortage and with a plan to phase them out. In 2020, a rough estimate of the loss incurred by the Bangladesh Power Development Board because of its reliance on rental power was about Tk 50,000 crore. The quick rental plant has also contributed to a steady decline in the demand for solar power, especially in the past two years. The government is implementing the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and the coal-fired Rampal power plant near the Sunderbans. It is in this context green activists have questioned the government’s commitment to clean energy and urged a review of its energy policy in which the primary consumed energy is still natural gas. The government needs to divest from fossil fuel, nuclear and other environmentally hazardous methods of power generation to create a demand for clean energy.

The government has taken a number of solar power development projects, including the recently approved solar park project at Madarganj in Jamalpur. In addition to initiating solar power projects, the government needs to consider incentivising the renewable energy sector and review the financing schemes and loan provisions. The central bank must take initiatives to inform the banks of the importance of financing clean energy. More importantly, the government must address the contradiction in its energy policy that is still heavily dependent on fossil fuel and nuclear energy.