Government moves to streamline renewable energy policy

The country's renewable energy regulator has moved to revise the decade-old renewable energy policy to streamline it with the present situation and demand, officials said.

Bangladesh enacted its first renewable energy policy in 2008, which set a target to generate 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The policy upgradation is aimed at increasing renewable energy contribution to the national power generation mix; promoting appropriate, efficient and environment-friendly technology for development of renewable energy; and setting revised target of renewable energy generation.

The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) recently floated a tender, seeking expression of interest (EoI) for consultancy service to revise the policy.

The selected consultants will identify renewable energy sources as well as the best technologies for Bangladesh and their potential uses.

Sources and technologies for all the renewable energy arenas - ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV), rooftop PV, floating solar power plant, biogas/biomass, waste to energy, onshore and offshore wind farm - have to be identified by the consultants.

As part of preparing the new policy they will also conduct techno-economic analysis of different technologies for generating electricity from renewable sources.

They will also review and align the new policy with national and international plans and policies as well as global trends and best practices.

The consultants will assess the scope of research and development programme and local capacity, leading to innovative products and services to accelerate growth of the renewable energy industry in the country.

An analysis on barriers of the considered technologies will also be conducted, and they will provide possible solutions.

The existing financial incentive and other benefits for renewable energy sector in the country will also be reviewed, and the consultants will propose 'pragmatic' incentive plan in line with the new policy and other existing policies concerned.

They will also review existing facilities for the renewable energy industry in other countries, and propose suitable incentives and other benefit mechanism.

The consultants will consider grid integration/ grid impact analysis of variable renewable energy to prepare the policy.

A major task of the consultants will be proposing revised renewable energy generation target for the country up to 2041 in a realistic way.

The consultants will also review and recommend on licensing issues for renewable energy projects, review existing evacuation facility for the projects, and suggest suitable evacuation facility.

They will propose a possible tariff methodology structure, considering possible technical and economic operational constraints and ancillary services.

Besides, the promotion of energy storage to minimise output variability of variable renewable energy power plants and alternative use has to be taken into consideration while preparing the policy.

A senior SREDA official told the FE that the target to generate 10 per cent electricity from renewable sources could not be achieved due to various barriers and lack of required promotions.

He said the government is now paying high importance to clean energy generation, and aggressive promotional measures will be taken to enhance renewable energy production.

The 8th five-year plan has also emphasised taking required steps for green energy production to respond to calls from global community.

Bangladesh is now heading the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a global organisation, which has set a target to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, he added.

Presently some 730.49 megawatts (MW) of electricity are being generated from renewable sources in the country.

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