Oct 13, 2024
| Tribune Editorial | Dhaka Tribune
For the past couple of years, Bangladesh has consistently failed to secure its power generation efforts to a point where it could meet its growing demand at both the consumer and industrial levels. Due to the country being hit by an energy crisis seemingly every year, Bangladesh often finds itself resorting back to strategies such as frequent rolling blackouts, which is an untenable practice.
As a publication, we have long championed the cause of Bangladesh gradually pivoting away from reliance on traditional fossil fuels and onto cleaner, more renewable sources. While certainly not a silver bullet solution given its time and financial investment, renewable energy nonetheless has long been considered the future of power generation given its environment-friendly nature, but it is high time that it was adopted without delay with an initial focus on our industries.
To this end, a panel of experts have recently suggested that Bangladesh will need to ramp up its renewable energy efforts to tackle future challenges when it comes to our RMG sector, which is the veritable engine of our economy.
According to the adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources, our renewable energy penetration currently stands at a paltry 2% -- the previous government, despite its many failures when it came to implementation of timely energy policies, had an ambitious target of generating 40% of our nation’s energy from renewable sources. The interim government would be well advised to revisit this plan and perhaps recalculate such targets to more manageable levels. However, when it comes to implementation, there can be no faltering.
Bangladesh’s climate vulnerability, coupled with our industrial ambitions, have always meant that our energy policies must be balanced on a knife’s edge -- the timely adoption of renewable energy, then, is our best bet to make sure that our nation stays in the game.