Country paper

Renewable Energy interventions in

Bangladesh

11-16 March 2007

Tazmilur Rahman

Beijing, China

Country Profile
•Geographical location: Between 20034’ and 26038’ North latitude;
88001’ and 92041’ East longitude

•Area: 144,570 sq km

•Population: 141 million [ population density 941/km2]

•Literacy rate: 43%

•Per Capita GNI: US$ 440

•Per Capita energy consumption 157 kgoe (2003)

•Per Capita Electricity Consumption: 144 kWh, annually

•Access to grid electricity: 32% people

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Introduction:

• Despite only 32% population has access to the National grid, The
Government of Bangladesh a noble vision to provide electricity for
all by the year 2020

• Target of meeting 5% of total electricity demand from RE by 2010

and 10% by the year 2020

• For the last three decades attempts have been made by GOs,
NGOs, and Development partners to promote modern RE
technologies.

• Modern Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) are in the

research, development and demonstration phase

Policy support
Government of Bangladesh has declared National Energy Policy
in 1996 which fosters Renewable Energy development

A “ Draft Renewable Energy Policy” has been submitted by the

Power Cell of MEMR which is yet to be approved by the GOB

Exemption of income tax for up to three years for the expatriate

personnel employed under the approved industry

Tax exemption on royalties, technical know how and technical

assistance fees and facilities for their repatriation

Establishment of Renewable Energy Development Agency

(REDA) has been proposed

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 Present Incentives in the RE sector
☺ In 1998, 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

☺ Present subsidy for family-size biogas plant is £ 75

☺ GOB will establish a RE trust fund to finance RE

project, and R&D activities

Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh:

Solar Energy

•Average solar radiation varies between 4 to 6.5 kWhm-2day-1

•Maximum amount of radiation is available in the month of

March-April and minimum in December-January.

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Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh:

Wind Energy

•Bangladesh Renewable Energy Research Centre (RERC) has

conducted solar and wind energy resource assessment through
SWERA project

•LGED in collaboration with BUET has installed twenty wind

monitoring stations to measure wind data.

•However a comprehensive wind resource assessment is not yet

completed.

Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh:

Wind Energy

•Primary result indicates limited prospects of wind resources in

the main land because average velocity was found about 3-4 ms-1,
however in the coastal belt for a period of five to six months wind
speed was found 5-7 ms-1. Therefore low cut-in speed wind turbine
may be useful in that region. Furthermore Bangladesh has about
700km long coastal belt, around 200km hilly coast line and about
50 offshore island where wind-solar hybrid could be a promising
option.

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 Wind Energy Resource Mapping (WERM)
Wind Monitoring Stations : 20
Partner Institutions : BUET,
BIT(Chittagong)
Study Period : 4 years
Geographical Coverage : Coastal areas,
CHT, Haor areas
Purposes : Long term systematic wind
data for wind resource mapping

Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh

Biomass Energy
• Biomass has a significant contribution to the energy consumption.
About 68% of total final energy comes from biomass resources.
• There are about 22 million cattle which could produce about 7
million m3 biogas per day.
•Main sources of biomass fuels are:
Trees (wood fuels, twigs, leaves, plant residues)
Agricultural Residues (paddy husk, bran, bagasse,
jute stick etc.) and
Livestock (animal dung), Poultry dropping, Waste,
Marine Plants, Human excreta.
•Total wood fuel consumption of the country is 8 million m3 where
domestic cooking accounts for estimated 5.1 million m3 (63%)
annually and the industrial and commercial sectors 2.9 million m3
annually (37%).

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Energy supplied by traditional biomass fuels in ‘000 tons of coal equivalent

Fuels 1990-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04

Cow-dung 2441 2471 2471 2471 2502

Jute stick 922 966 1010 966 922

Rice straw 1375 1429 1409 1418 1218

Rice hulls 2810 2810 2854 2898 2854

Bagasse 314 340 366 366 392

Fire wood 1166 1166 1219 1219 1272

Twigs and leaves 1325 1378 1431 1484 1537

Other wastes 1186 1230 1273 1317 1361

Total 11539 11790 12033 12139 12258

Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics

Bio-gas & Bio-fertilizer potential:

There are about 22 million of cattle which excrete about 0.22

million tons of dung per day.

This can produce on an average 2.72x109 m3 of biogas/year.

Sl. Raw materials Organic Fertilizer Yearly gas Production (in
(in million tons) million cubic meter)

1. Cow/Buffalos 60.2 2971.10

dung
2. Poultry droppings 2.05 191.60

3. Human excreta 32.85 1226.40

4. Garbage 1072 115.00
5. Water hyacinth 10.00 740.00
6. Pressed mud 0.07 3.84

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Prospect of Bio-fuel cultivation in Bangladesh
Jatropha cultivation at the Bangladesh Agricultural University

Species : Jatropha curcas

English name: Physic nut,
purge nut,
pig nut,
Jatropha
Agronomy:
Germination: takes 7-10 days
Flowering:
By cutting the planted branch takes
3-4 months and by seedling it takes
About a year for flowering
Pruning: Once a year

Jatropha oil can be used as a direct replacement for kerosene for cooking and
lighting. Different parts of Jatropha have medicinal values

Jatropha - composition

Jatropha-capsules 1000kg
Minus capsule sheaths (35%) 350kg

Seeds 650kg
Minus seed shells (35%)
228kg

Kernels 422kg

Oil (58%) Seed cake (42%)

245kg 177kg

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Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh
Hydro Energy

• Bangladesh is a riverine country with three main rivers

(1) Ganges (2) Brahmaputra and (3) Jamuna.

• Numerous rivers flow across the country which are mostly

tributaries of these main rivers.

• About 1.4 trillion cubic meter of water flows through the country
in an average water year. Out of these, 57 rivers are Transboundary
which originate from India and Myanmar.

• Apart from the south-eastern region, other parts of the country are
mostly flat in nature.

Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh

Hydro Energy

• 230MW is being generated from the Kaptai hydro project. PDB

has a plan to extend another unit of hydro power of capacity of
100MW
• The first micro-hydro power unit of capacity 10kW has been
installed by LGED at Bamerchara, Chittagong district. On the other
hand BPDB has installed another 50kW capacity Diesel-hydro
hybrid power unit at Barkal, Rangamati
• BWDB and BPDB have identified nineteen sites for micro-hydro
which have total potentials of generating about 1200 KW
•LGED has identified seven pico-hydro sites at the CHT region
which have total potentials of about 140kW

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Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh
Hydro Energy
Potential small hydro sites identified by BPDB and BWDB
District Name River/Chara/Stream Potential of Electrical
Energy in KW
Chittagong 1. Foy’s lake 4
Chittagong 2. Choto Kumira 15
Chittagong 3. Hinguli Chara 12
Chittagong Hill Tracts 4. Sealock 81
Chittagong 5. Lungichara 10
Chittagong 6. Budiachara 10
Sylhet 7. Nikhari Chara 26
Sylhet 8. Madhab Chara1500ft. from fall 78
Sylhet 9. Ranga pani Gung 616
Jamalpur 10. Bhugai-Kongsa at 2 miles U/S. of Nalitabari 69Kw for 10 months

Jamalpur 11. Marisi at Dukabad near Jhinaigati 35Kw for 10 months

Dinajpur 12. Dahuk at Burabari 24

13. Chawai at U/S. of Chawai L.L.P 32
14. Talam at U/S. of Talam L.L.P 24
15. Pathraj at Fulbari 32
16. Tangon at D/S of Nargun L.L.P 48
17. Punarbhaba at Singraban 11
Rangpur 18. Buri Khora Chikli at Nizbari 32
19. Fulkumar at Raiganj Bazar 48

Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh

Hydro Energy
Potential small hydro sites identified by LGED

Site Expected Socio-economic Infrastructure within 1 Km

Power
Generation
House hold School / Small
Mosque / Industry
Bazaar /
Clinic
Nunchari Tholipara, 3 KW 100 3 1
Khagrachari

Chang-oo-Para, Bandarban 30 KW 200 5 2

Bangchari, Bandarban 25 KW 600 12 5

Liragaon, Bandarban 20 KW 500 8 3

Kamalchar, Rangamati 20 KW 150 8 9

Thang Khrue, Rangamati 30 KW 300 6 3

Monjaipara, Bandarban 7.5 KW 50 3 -

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 Renewable Energy Resources in Bangladesh:

Tidal and Wave Energy

•Average tidal head was observed about 1-2 meters

From seven gauge stations installed at the
St. Martin’s Island

•No initiative is taken to explore wave energy

Major Renewable Energy players in Bangladesh

Govt. and Institutions:
• Local Government Engineering Department (LGED)
• Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB)
• Rural Electrification Board (REB)
• Renewable Energy Research Centre (RERC)
• Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
• Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET)
• Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU)
• BCSIR, IDCOL

Development partners:
• UNDP
• World Bank
• GTZ
• JBIC

NGOs:
• Grameen Shakti
• BRAC
• Prakaushali Sangsad Ltd.
• Shubashati
• Thangamara Mohila Sobuj Shangha (TMSS)

Private Organizations:
• Rahimafrooz Solar Ltd.
• Fare Trade Ltd.
• Micro Electronics Ltd.
• Nebula Techno Solutions Ltd.

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Summary of Renewable Energy utilization
NO Technology Number of units

01. Solar home systems Above 150,000

02. LED home systems Around 400
03. Solar lantern Above 500
04. Solar thermal (Water heater) 10 units
04. Other PV applications 50 kWp
05. Wind-Solar hybrid 20kW
06. Wind pumps 5 Nos
07. Micro-hydro 60 Kw
08. Biogas plants Around 25000
09. Improved Cooking Stoves Above 300,000
10. Biomass briquetting machines Around 100
11. Wind generator 900kW

Electricity generation pattern, 2004

0.20%4% 7%

88.80%

Hydro Oil Natural gas Renewables

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 Barriers to commercialize RE

Awareness barrier
Policy barrier
Financing barrier
Institutional barrier
Technical barrier
Market barrier
Information barrier
Human resource barrier

Some milestone initiatives to

disseminate RETs in Bangladesh

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 Some RE interventions
• SHS
• Solar street lights
• GS electrification
• SPV pumping
• SPV Health centre
• Solar mini grid
• LED home systems
• Wind –Solar hybrid
• Electricity from poultry waste
• Micro-hydro units
• Biogas units
• Capacity building
• World Env day
• Offgrid mapping
• REIN

Conclusions:
• Bangladesh is endowed with vast renewable energy resources such as solar insolation,
wind energy, biomass and small hydro.

• Harnessing these resources appears to be a promising solution for improving the quality of
life of rural villagers, who are unlikely to have access to conventional electricity supply in
the foreseeable future.

• renewable projects are mainly

donor driven programs for rural and off-grid electrification

• But in the developing countries, renewable projects are mainly

donor driven programs for rural and off-grid electrification

• Renewables are slowly finding a niche market in Bangladesh

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For your valuable comments and further quary ….

tazmilur gmail.com

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