The cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday approved a proposal of 200MWp solar power plant in Teknaf, the country’s southern-most upazila under Cox’s Bazar district.
As part of the government’s mega plan to give a further boost to power generation, the plant proposed by the Power Division will be implemented by the US-based solar power firm SunEdison.
The government will pay over Tk8,595 crore to buy electricity from the plant over the next 20 years after launching.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, the committee’s alternative chairman, presided over the meeting.
“The cabinet committee has given its consent to set up the proposed solar power plant in Teknaf. The electricity will be bought at Tk13.26 or $0.17 per unit [from the plant],” Maksudur Rahman Pathwary, additional secretary at the cabinet division, told journalists after the meeting.
According to the proposal, Teknaf solar power plant will be the country’s largest grid-connected solar project to be implemented as an independent power producer project.
The Power Division has already completed negotiations with the US firm’s Singapore-based subsidiary, allowing it to set up the plant on the build-own-operate basis, the proposal said.
Following the negotiations, the government is now set to allow SunEidson to build the plant in Teknaf for the next 20 years in an attempt to ease acute power crisis in Chittagong district.
The state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) will purchase electricity from the project during the period on “No Electricity, No Payment” basis.
According to the proposal singed by the Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam, the per-unit cost (each kilowatt hour) of electricity of the project will be $0.17 which is equivalent to Tk13.26.
The plant will be set up on about 1,000 acres of non-agricultural land in the tourist district of Cox’s Bazar.
