Revisiting solar power

When the need for exploiting all sources of renewable energy including that of the tropical sun is being felt more than ever, the number of existing Solar Home Systems (SHSs) that converts solar energy into electricity through a photovoltaic (PV) module in use is declining. A survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed that in 2021, 2.25 per cent of the population used SHSs. But by the next two years, the number fell to 1.81 per cent in 2023.  Clearly, the SHS which saw its rapid expansion among the population between 2003 and 2013, has halted after grid power became available in the areas where solar power was earlier the only option. That could well be good news because it showed the then-government's ability to bring larger and larger sections of the population under the national power grid. But the approach at the same time was short-sighted, unsustainable and irresponsible. Short-sighted because being a net importer of fossil fuel, Bangladesh cannot continue the practise for long as it does not have enough hard currency to buy fossil fuels like Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), furnace oil, coal etc., to fire its power plants. Neither was the government exploring and exploiting existing reserves for gas and coal.  Unsustainable because in an era when globally there is a shift from fossil-based energy to renewable one for the dual reason of falling fossil energy reserves everywhere as well as deleterious effect of fossil fuel on the environment, the government chose an opposite path. Irresponsible because knowing full well that such path of national electrification was ill-conceived, the government went ahead with the plan to produce more power than the country needed through setting up new state-owned gas and oil-based power plants,  privately-owned rental and quick rental power plants including even import of electricity from India, just to satisfy the tall ego of the head of the government as well as line the pockets of all those involved at the expense of the public exchequer. Notably, according to former state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid, during the past fifteen years of the previous government, capacity payments for the rental power stations alone cost the public exchequer Tk.105 billion. Among the highest recipients of the capacity charges were the Summit Group, United Group, Bangla Cat, RPCAL among others. These crony capitalists got the money without supplying any power to the public.

The unsustainable success story of covering the country's entire population by the fossil-fuel-based national grid did one thing: it put an early end to the prospect of supplying clean electricity to the people through SHSs and other renewable energy options. 

According to an estimate, there are some 6 million homes in the country connected to SHSs.

The adviser to the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources of the interim government has stated that all projects and agreements implemented under special laws during the previous government will continue. That's understandable. But at the same time, the government should make serious efforts to wean the nation off the dirty habit of using electricity from fossil-fuel-run power plants. 

To this end, the government should renew its focus on renewable energy including PV modules for households, solar rooftops, solar irrigation, floating solar power projects etc.

It may be recalled that providing power through SHSs started by the end of 1990s when most remote areas of the country were not connected to the national grid. People of those areas used kerosene lamps to light their homes in the evening. In 2003, started the World Bank (WB)-financed SHS projects by the Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL). The installation of SHSs continued for a decade with ever increasing number of homes getting service. But as noted before, expansion of the national grid stopped the progress of SHS installations.  Interim government's energy adviser should have a rethink.

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