The rooftops of government buildings, including Gono Bhaban, will soon be decked in solar panels, turning them into solar energy plants.
“We have decided to install a solar plant on the rooftop of all district government buildings including Gono Bhaban,” Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said measures were being taken to utilise the rooftops of different government offices to install solar panels for power generation, adding that power sector officials have to pay more attention to generating electricity from renewable energy.
The first solar plant in a district government building, a green response to the fuel crisis, will be installed in Jamalpur.
The government will identify appropriate buildings in all districts within a month with the help of the Public Works Department.
Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy has installed a 50kilowatt-peak (kWp) Grid-Tied Solar Project on the rooftop of the Bangladesh Secretariat. Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) is buying electricity from the plant.
This is the first power purchase contract with a solar plant and a milestone for rooftop solar applications in the country. According to the agreement, the 50kWp project will be directly added to the national grid through an inverter. The DPDC will pay Tk19.95 per unit for 20 years to buy power from the project.
The government has installed the biggest solar power plant on the rooftop of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics building in Dhaka.
The plant, with a 200 kWp generation capacity, equivalent to lighting up 5,000 bulbs of 40 watts, meets a significant portion of the building’s demand for electricity. The solar plant was installed by InGen Technology Limited.
In addition to this, the government-run 57 kilowatt plant at Kaliakoir Hightech Park, a 50 kilowatt plant on the rooftop of the Bangladesh Bank main building and the privately owned 100-kilowatt plant in Sandwip are the country’s three other big solar power plants.
According to sources, more than 4 million solar home systems (SHS) are now generating more than 155 MW of solar power.
Apart from the SHS, more than 100 solar irrigation pumps (SIP), mini-grids, street lamps, base transceiver stations for mobile operators and other sources generate more than 50 MW of electricity.