Bangladesh is hot. And it pays to be have the sun hit
so hard. How? Solar energy can be well harnessed. Thanks to the initiatives of
several international organisations – World Bank being one – Bangladesh is now
seeing the implementation of solar power in locations where electricity has not
made in-roads. The report is that about 4 million homes are covered under solar
power. That’s about 16 million people. And that’s about 10% of the country’s population.
Solar irrigation pumps that are
cleaner and cheaper than the ones that run on diesel have benefitted about 6000
farmers in Bangladesh. With an economy that is doing well the demand for electricity
is on a high. Bangladesh is laying greater emphasis on solar
parks, domestic solar plants and wind power.
A USD 400 Mn joint venture between
Bangladesh and the Chinese company is building a renewable energy project that
will offer 500 megawatts of power in the next few years. Bangladesh taps solar energy producing 25 megawatts out
of this effort. The country is expected to serve 10% of its overall power requirement
from renewable energy in the immediate future.
The United Nations, on its part, is asking other countries
to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. The UN has gone to the extent of suggesting
that;
- taxes should be imposed on carbon emissions,
- subsidies to stop for fossil fuels, and;
- construction
of coal fired power stations to be stopped.
Globally the dependence on coal is reducing and the
number of new coal plants has come down. Here’s a look at what other countries
are doing.
UK: Phase out coal in the next few years
Germany: No use of coal after 2038, a
Other EU countries (eight of them): No use of coal use after 2030.
Chile: No coal fired power stations after 2040
South Korea: No coal plants after 2022
The various Bangladesh initiatives may help other countries harness
renewable energy and set them on path of saying no to fossil fuel.
