Though the production cost of renewable energy, especially the solar power, had substantially dropped in recent years, its share in the country’s power generation saw no jump.
The dismal picture was painted in the documents of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
According to the papers, the country’s grid-connected renewable energy’s in the total power generation still persists below 1%.
Only recently it went up to 0.36% per unit in the FY2021-22 from a level of 0.09% per unit in FY20, revealed the documents recently placed during the public hearing of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC).
The official documents also manifested that the government continued its focus on the promotion of fossil fuel, especially for costly power generation from rental and quick rental power plants to offset its rising annual financial loss.
The BPDB, meanwhile, proposed to raise the per unit electricity tariff by 65.56% from the existing rate of Tk5.17 arguing that it faces a loss of Tk30,251 crore in revenue unless the sails through.
However, a technical evaluation team (TET) of the BERC) recommended a price hike by 57.83%.
The commission of the BERC has not yet made its final decision.
The BPDB documents showed the government had to spend an average Tk43.42 to per unit to generate electricity from Diesel-fired plants, followed by Tk15.51 per unit from furnace oil-fired plants, Tk12.77 from coal-fired power plants, Tk12.64 per unit from renewable energy (solar) plants, Tk 3.46 from gas-fired power plants and Tk2.67 per unit from hydro plants and Tk5.95 from imported power in FY22 (as of March).
It generated highest 56.43% electricity from gas-fired plants, 26.49% electricity from furnace-oil fired plants, 5.75% electricity from coal-fired plants, 0.92% electricity from diesel-fired plants, 1.03% electricity from hydro plants, 9.02% electricity from import, and only 0.36% electricity from renewable sources.
The most important feature is that the cost of electricity from solar is much lower at Tk12.68 per unit while power generation cost from diesel is highest at Tk43.42 per unit and Tk15.51 per unit from furnace oil-fired plants.
Despite such a huge potential for power generation from renewable energy due to its substantial reduction in cost, the power did not focus on green energy.
The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in a recent study on corruption in the power sector claimed the cost of power generation from renewable sources has dropped by 89%.
It said the country is capable of generating 30,000 MW of electricity from renewable sources while the government set a target to generate 2,800 MW by 2021. The current generation from renewable sources is only 779 MW.
About slow deployment of renewable energy promotion, senior vice president of Bangladesh Sustainable and Renewable Energy Association (BSREA) Munawar Moin said lack of proper policy support with a budget has been the main problem in development of the sector.
At the moment the only possible deployment is “Rooftop Solar” with Net Meter. However, an appropriate financing option with fiscal incentives may play a vital role for rapid deployment by industry owners.
“In addition, a target-specific plan with budget allocation should be adopted for scaling up the renewable energy deployment." he added.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the government has set a target to generate 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2041.
To achieve the goal the government has taken various steps including net metering and other policy guidelines, he said in his recent address to a webinar.
He said Bangladesh needed innovative technology alongside the foreign financial and technical support to overcome its main bottleneck of land scarcity in development of the green energy sector.