22-08-2012, 01:25 PM
Status of Renewable Energy Technologies in Bangladesh
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Introduction
Biomass energy sources are traditionally used for
domestic cooking and in small rural industries. Biomass fuels
are estimated to account for about 73% of the country’s primary
energy supply (World Bank, 1998). The country’s per
capita annual energy consumption in 1997 was about 77
kgoe, and it was much below the world average of 1474 kgoe
(ADB, 2001). Only around 30% of the population has access
to electricity (BPDB, 2002). Over 80% of people depend on
traditional energy sources such as firewood, cow dung and
agricultural residues for their energy needs. Excessive use of
firewoods threatens the remaining forest cover, which is only
10% of the total land area (WEC, 2000).
Policy Support
“National Energy Policy (NEP), 1995” of Bangladesh has
got guidelines for Renewable Energy Technologies.
Government has also adopted “Private Power Generation
Policy, 1996” for encouraging private sector participation in
the electricity generation sector of the country along with
BPDB and already several Independent Power Producers
(IPPs’) are supplying electricity to the national grid. Apart
from this, another policy – “Small Power Generation Policy,
1998” has also been introduced to encourage small electricity
generation capacity up to 10 MW throughout the country
by the private sector. A “Draft Renewable Energy Policy”
has been submitted by the Power Cell of MEMR which is yet
to be approved by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB).
4. Incentives in the Ret Sector
In 1998, The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) lifted
import duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) from solar photovoltaic
and wind turbines. Solar PV program of different
government bodies (BPDB, LGED, REB) are basically subsidy
driven. At present, under the Biogas Pilot Plant project,
the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) gives 7,500 Taka subsidy
for a family-size biogas plant which can be used for
cooking and lighting purposes.
Research and Development Activities
The different institutes, universities and research organizations
(both public and private) are carrying out research
and development (R&D) activities in various fields of renewable
energy technologies. R&D activities of Bangladesh are
characterized by many constraints, including the lack of
expert knowledge and financial resources. Different organizations
and their field of interest related to R&D of RETs are
presented in Table 1.