Plan to use river, canal banks to generate renewable energy

The government plans to use river and canal banks as potential solution of land scarcity problem for implementing renewable energy project in the country.
Reclaiming land parcels from different areas, including the biggest rivers Jamuna and Padma or Kaptai Lake, it plans to generate huge solar power for meeting the growing demand of energy minimizing the cost of primary fuel including coal and LNG, according to the National Solar Energy Action Plan 2021-2041.
"We could reclaim 3 to 5 per cent of land of river or canal banks across the country through implementing proper river management plans," a senior official of the Power Division told the Daily Observer on Thursday while sharing a new study report in this regard.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the government is very keen to utilise renewable energy.
"We have awarded over 60 solar power projects so far, most of which could not be implemented because of the failure of the sponsors, however, he told, noting that land scarcity as a major bottleneck in implementing solar power projects here," he said.
However, the government is working towards universal electricity access by 2021 with the solar home systems (SHS) programme projected to cover 10 million households by 2021.
SHS will provide electricity to households with no grid access, that reached 6 million households as of late 2017 and, with more than 50,000 systems being added per month since 2009, which is the fastest growing solar home system programme in the world but recent days land crisis has halted its expansion plan as per projection.   "We are very serious to implement RE projects here, if any investor comes up with a 10,000 MW renewable energy plan, we're ready to award the contract, even on unsolicited basis, but the reality is that its progress in Bangladesh is very slow," Nasrul Hamid said.
Analyzing all these issue, Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said in the post Covid-19 era, renewable energy could be the best suitable option for the country to reset its power sector development policy to come out of the obligation for capacity payment to idle power plants.
US-based international research and analysis organisation made this observation recently. However, the study says that at least 8,000 MW of solar power could be generated by 2041 in case of 'as usual business case scenario', and 25,000 MW in a 'medium case scenario.'
All these could be done by using the banks of big rivers and lakes here.
This inference can be drawn from a new study suggesting that 40,000 MW of electricity in the country could be easily generated from solar energy by 2041, if an action plan is prioritised. In such a scenario, solar energy would constitute 50 per cent of the country's installed capacity.
However, the existing Power System Master Plan stipulates for 35 per cent power generation from imported LNG (liquefied natural gas), some 35 per cent from imported coal, 15 per cent from renewable energy, 10 per cent from nuclear energy and five per cent from petroleum oil by 2041, when the country's generation will reach 60,000 MW.
Country currently generates a total of 649.61 MW of electricity from different renewable sources while the country's total generation capacity is 22,000 MW.
Of this, 415.68 MW is being generated from solar power while wind energy produces 0.9 MW, hydro 230 MW, biogas 0.63 MW and biomass 0.4 MW.
Different organisations and energy experts have been urging policymakers to concentrate more on the development of solar power as a clean energy source to meet the country's growing energy needs.
Centre for Policy Dialogue said the government should shift its future coal-based and imported LNG-based power plant projects to solar and other renewable energy-based projects as the cost of renewable energy continued to fall with advancement of new technologies.
Eminent energy expert Prof Ijaz Hossain recently said the country should give more priority to renewable power like neighbouring India.
"Solar power advancement is just like the advancement of mobile telephony. Some 10 years back, nobody had imagined that everyone would have smartphones in their hands. So, in the near future, solar power might claim the position of cheapest energy," he said.