Apr 4, 2024
| Staff Correspondent | The Energy Bangla
The webinar titled Scaling up rooftop solar deployment in Bangladesh was jointly organized by the Energy & Power magazine and the global think tank Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Editor of the energy & power magazine, Mollah Amzad Hossain moderated the webinar. In the keynote presentation, IEEFAs Lead Energy Analyst of Bangladesh, Shafiqul Alam provided a brief overview of the rooftop solar sector that currently has 166.88MW capacity under both net-metered and non-net-metered systems. With several rounds of power tariff adjustments in the last 1 and a half years, rooftop solar is more economically compelling now than ever.
While the year 2023 has been prolific in terms of rooftop solar capacity expansion, the sector confronts several challenges. Arranging finance, confidence of the building owners in rooftop solar, information asymmetry on changes in regulations and interest rates, high import duties on rooftop solar accessories, lack of revenue stream for utilities, and capacity gaps of major stakeholders are some of the major challenges, added Alam. He further mentioned that the central banks refinancing scheme is the cheapest source of funding for rooftop solar but 70 environment-friendly projects, including rooftop solar, compete for taka 400 crore which is insufficient for scaling up rooftop solar. Similarly, IDCOLs financing scheme is also a fraction of what the sector needs for a rapid scale-up. Bangladesh therefore would need more funding if demand surges for rooftop solar.
Against these backdrops, Shafiqul Alam said Bangladesh needs to design a market that incentivizes and de-risks investments in rooftop solar to increase the pace of implementation and achieve scale. Here, Bangladesh does not need to reinvent the wheel but should increase the effectiveness of the existing measures and implement successful schemes implemented elsewhere. He added, SREDA needs to step up efforts in enhancing the capacity of different stakeholders and raising awareness of different building owners. Engr. Nurul Aktar, President of Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association (BSREA) said high import duties and low awareness affect rooftop solar implementation. The CEO of IDCOL said rooftop solar is one of the key financing areas of IDCOL. However, he agreed with the keynote speaker that IDCOLs facility would not be enough with respect to the demand for financing in the sector. He feels awareness raising on the benefits of rooftop solar is necessary.
Former Dean of BUET, Professor Ijaz said that perhaps a feed-in-tariff could be better for the rooftop solar. He further mentioned that due to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and other international pressure, our export-oriented industries would need to implement rooftop solar. Addressing a question from the audience, Shafiqul Alam said, the current tariffs for industries and commercial buildings in Bangladesh are better than the feed-in-tariff that influenced the rooftop solar explosion in Vietnam. Special guest of the webinar and IEEFA South Asias director, Vibhuti Garg mentioned that Bangladesh may think about innovative business models such as virtual net metering and peer-to-peer trading. Blended finance instruments can play a big role. It is also crucial to note that cost of solar technology continues to come down and the attractiveness of rooftop solar increases too.
Chief Guest of the webinar, Director General of Power Cell, Engr Mohammad Hossain said that Bangladesh has done very well with solar home systems. Now the wave is for rooftop solar. We are thinking about removing the 70% restriction on rooftop solar installation capacity. We are also working on corporate power purchase agreement. As we are working on improving grid quality to accommodate nuclear power plants, the grid issue due to variable rooftop solar units will also be addressed. Mohammad Hossain further added that as the focus is not to affect agricultural land, rooftop solar is a very important avenue to expand our renewable energy.