The government is going to give approval for the establishment of two more solar power plants in a late flurry for renewable energy. The cabinet committee on government purchases in a meeting on Wednesday will review agreements between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and private groups to build the solar power plants. Power division officials said one of the proposed power plants would be established by Energon Renewables (BD) Ltd and PWR Energy Trading LLC.

The 130-Megawatt plant will be set up at Gajaria upazila in Munshiganj. The other one was proposed by MAX Infrastructure Ltd and Hanhgzhou Boiler Co Ltd, a Chinese company, for producing 180 megawatts at Ghoradhap union in Jamalapur Sadar upazila. On September 28, the same committee approved the establishment of three solar power plants by seven Bangladeshi and international companies. The plants include a 200-megawatt solar power plant by Parker Bangladesh Limited and Sumitomo Corporation of Japan at the Barapukuria coal mine in Dinajpur, a 70-megawatt one by Fujian Yongfu Power Engineering Company Limited of China, Air Waves Private Limited and Moni Traders Limited in Bandarban and a 100-Megawatt one by Electric Generation Company of Bangladesh and Marubini Corporation of Japan at Sonagazi in Feni.

Power division officials calculated that the government awarded contracts to establish solar power plants of more than 1,000 megawatt in the past six months in a late flurry for renewable power plants. At present, only 87 Megawatt is adding to the national grid every day, which is less than 0.7 per cent of the country’s average power generation capacity at 12,000 Megawatt. The currently operational privately owned solar power plants are—three Megawatt Sarishabari Solar Plant, 20MW Teknaf Solartech in Cox’s Bazar, 8MW Sympa Solar Power Limited in Panchagarh, and 50MW HDFC Solar in Mymensingh. The only state-owned solar power plant is in Rangamati generating 7MW power. The government has faced criticisms for overly depending on fossil fuel for generating power despite making repeated promises to increase the country’s renewable capacity. The government failed to fulfill its target of generating 10 per cent of the overall power generation through renewable sources as mentioned in the power sector master plan expired in 2020.

Consumers Association of Bangladesh energy adviser M Shamsul Alam said that the government favoured costly fuel-oil based power plants in the past one decade instead of renewable energy to benefit a certain quarter by proving controversial capacity charge. The country paid nearly $9 billion in capacity charge over the past decade as its installed capacity increased to over 27,000 MW with half remaining unused most of the time. The country’s current energy policy overburdened the people, said Shamsul Alam. The government is going to set up an ambitious target of generating 40 per cent power from the renewable sources under its draft power plan until 2041, according to power division officials.

News Link: https://www.newagebd.net/article/215863/late-flurry-for-solar-power-plants-by-govt