Green energy’s share of power generation lagging far behind conventional sources

Though Bangladesh has made substantial strides in overall power generation over three terms of the Awami League, the government’s efforts to meet its own target for power generation from renewable energy have failed to keep up.

The Power System Master PLan (PSMP) 2016 had set a target to reach the renewable energy’s share to 10 percent of total power generation capacity (2470 MW) by 2021 – a major focus was supposed to be on exploiting the potential of solar energy to achieve the goal.

Available data shows the country now has generating capacity of 20,595 MW from conventional sources while power from renewable sources is lagging far behind at 700.61 MW, which is around 3 percent of the total generation capacity.

Numbers from the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) show that among different renewable energy sources, PV solar leads the sector with 466.68 MW generation capacity, while it is followed by hydro with 230 MW capacity, 2.9 MW from wind, 0.63 MW from Bio-gas and 0.4 MW from Biomass.

Bangladesh is far behind Pakistan and India, among its South Asian neighbors in utilising renewable energy resources for electricity generation.

Source : unb