Nasrul Hamid urges officials to focus more on renewable energy 

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has urged officials to pay more attention to generate electricity from renewable sources. 

“You have to work with broader mindset to generate more electricity from the renewable sources,” he said, while virtually addressing a contract signing ceremony at Biduyt Bhaban on Sunday for setting up a 55 MW wind power plant in Mongla. 

He said the wind project is the part of the government’s target to generate 10 per cent of electricity from renewable energy by 2030 and 40 per cent by 2040, reports UNB. 

A Chinese-Bangladeshi consortium signed the deal with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to set up the plant on a build-own-operate basis at Mongla in Bagerhat. 

The Consortium of Envision Energy, (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., China, SQ Trading and Engineering, Bangladesh and Envision Renewable Energy Limited, Hong Kong will develop the plant under a new special project vehicle (SPV) company Mongla Green Power Ltd. 

The project cost is expected to be around $96.597m. 

At the function, BPDB director Golam Rabbani and Mongla Green Energy’s managing director Xu Wentao signed the contract on behalf of their respective sides. 

As per the deal, the state-owned BPDB will purchase electricity from the plant at a levelised tariff of 13.20 Cents, equivalent to Tk13 per kilowatt hour (each unit). 

The BPDB will purchase electricity from the independent power producer (IPP) plant over a period of 20 years spending a total of more than Tk 20.0billion. 

This has been the second deal for wind power for which the BPDB signed a contract with the private sector sponsor. 

Earlier, the BPDB signed the first deal with US-DK Green Energy (BD), a private firm, fir setting up a 60 MW wind power plant at Cox’s Bazar.  

Nasrul Hamid inaugurated the groundbreaking of the Cox’s Bazar plant in March this year.