Utilising rooftops for solar power generation

The Government of Bangladesh has decided to increase solar power generation and using rooftops of the government buildings including educational institutes and hospitals. The target has been fixed to generate 2,000-3,000 MW in phases using the building rooftops. The first phase of the initiative targets to generate approximately 1,500 MW within February 2026. Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has involved 6 electricity distribution companies of the country Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), Rural Electrification Board (REB), West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDCO), Norther Electric Supply Company (NESCO), Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) to make the initiative successful. Secretary, Power Division has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 21, 2025 with the Secretaries of the five government ministries and divisions (the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the Secondary and Higher Education Division, the Technical and Madrasa Education Division, the Health Services Division, the Medical Education and the Women and Family Welfare Division) to install solar PV panels on the rooftops of the institutes under the ministries and divisions to collectively generate approximately 1,454 MW of green energy. Six electricity supply companies under the Power Division will facilitate the private investors to implement the rooftop solar electricity generation programme within the guidelines of the 'National Rooftop Solar Programme'. 

The private sector investors will be invited to bid for using the rooftop spaces of 46,854 educational and health facilities and install the solar power generation systems and connect them with the national power grid. Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser to the Interim Government Dr Fauzul Kabir Khan has expressed the hope that the solar PV panel installation works and their connections with the national power grid lines would be completed within the stipulated time. Power Division instructed the power distribution companies to float tenders, receive offers, complete scrutiny of received offers, and sign contracts with competitive bidders by December 10, 2026 for installation of solar PV panels for generation of electricity within February 2026. The government expects the bidders to offer acceptable investment terms for generating electricity using the rooftop solar power systems. The National Rooftop Solar Programme of the government included among others the aim to generate 20 per cent of the country's total electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2030 and 30 per cent by 2040.

The government initiatives are targeting to reduce reliance on fossil fuel, specially, natural gas use for electricity generation in the country as the gas productions from local sources have been steadily declining. The local productions of natural gas have been declining fast (approximately 200 MMCFD per annum). On the contrary, all the government's efforts to increase local gas productions and increase domestic proven reserve yielded little success. As per published information, LNG import and processing, storage capacities remain limited so far (approximately 1,000 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) in the country. Despite the LNG imports, the country still faces a gas deficit of 1,200-1,300 MMCFD. 

Infrastructure restrictions and high import price limit LNG import initiatives for the country. The import-oriented coal fired power generation capacity building in the past offered little comfort for the power sector. The power plants installed in the coast lines of the country (with more than 7,000 MW installed capacity) did not help as most of  the coal fired power plants lack the deep see port and jetty facilities. Hence, the coal imports are accomplished in small vessels involving the costly multi stage transshipments of coal. 

Adviser for the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Division informed that the cost for generating electricity using import LNG would involve at least Taka 20 per unit. For supplying natural gas as fuel for industries would involve Taka 40 per unit. In both cases, huge government subsidy pressure would become inevitable for keeping the sector functional. Published reports indicate that between the fiscal year 2010-2011 and FY 2024-2025, the government spent Taka 236,000 crore in power sector subsidies. The subsidy for power sector for the last financial year was Taka 62,000 crore.  Therefore, the Power Division wanted to increase the share of renewable energy for electricity generation and supply (in addition, the green electricity generation will help reduction of carbon emission load). At present, the average cost of electricity supplied to national grid generated from renewable sources (manly solar energy) is about 13  US  Cents.

The coal import and its transportation and transhipment costs impact on landing cost of coal for the power plants, making the coal fired power costly. Report published (October 18, 2025) in the local media informs that the RNPL coal fired power plant (1,320 MW) has been suffering from coal supply problems. The power plant has been incurring daily losses of approximately Taka 50 million due to its unutilised capacity for power generation and supply to the national grid. Coal supply challenges are common for most of the power plants in the country. Gas fired power plants in Bangladesh have been systematically suffering from primary fuel shortages as well. Limiting government subsidies for power sector and primary fuel supply problems compel several power plants in the country either to remain idle or run with limited capacity utilisation.

Power outage, quality power supply problems are common in the country. Despite the availability of installed power generation capacity (28,359 MW, including import and renewable power) in the country, highest power production record in the country was marked as 16,794 MW (on July 23, 2025). Generally, the power generation capacity utilisation remains lower than the record peak production. So far, the national electricity demand did not cross 18,000 MW and the share of residential electricity consumers remain the highest (56 per cent) compared to industrial consumers share (28-29 per cent). Share of on grid solar and wind turbine-based power generation capacity(installed) has been recorded as 829 MW only. 

Thus, the potential for generation of electricity using rooftop spaces in the country needs to be harnessed as it provides a huge source of clean energy (using the existing space without new land use). In addition, the respective owners of educational and health facilities may take the advantage of 'net metering' systems and make appropriate use of electricity generated on their institutes' rooftop. 

Bangladesh has been compelled to restrict its potential solar energy capacity use for several financial, logistical, and technical reasons. Scarcity of land for solar power capacity development has been significantly restricting the capacity expansion. Rooftop capacity utilisation policies and concrete initiatives for implementing the policies may help substantial increment of renewable energy for power generation.

Mushfiqur Rahman is a mining engineer. 

He writes on energy and environment issues. mushfiq41@yahoo.com