The Government of Bangladesh has approved construction of a huge solar power project which is expected to play a critical role in the country achieving its renewable energy targets.
A 200 MW solar power project to be constructed in the Teknaf sub-district has been given the go ahead by the Government of Bangladesh. The project will be developed by SunEdison Energy Holding (Singapore), and is expected to be the largest solar power project in the country.
The project is expected to start operation following 18 months of construction. Tariff for the project has been determined at $0.17/kWh, which is said to be less than the price of electricity generated from oil-based power plants in the country.
The Bangladesh Government has set a target to have 3,168 MW of renewable energy capacity installed by 2021. The Government also aims to have a 5% share of renewable energy in electricity generation by the end of this year, which is planned to increase to 10% by 2021.
The main focus of the the 3 GW capacity addition will be solar and wind energy technologies. The Government plans to add 1,740 MW of solar power and 1,370 MW of wind energy capacity by 2021, with the remaining balance to be largely made up of biomass-based power generation technologies.
The daily power generation in Bangladesh is around 7,000 MW, while the daily peak demand is around 8,500 MW. As a result, the country is looking to boost its power generation capacity, and renewable energy projects are a part of that plan. Bangladesh is also importing electricity from India and may start buying power from Bhutan as well.
While SunEdison may seem to have have taken the lead in large-scale solar power infrastructure development in Bangladesh, other foreign developers are not far behind. Earlier this year, SkyPower Global announced that it plans to set up 2 GW solar power capacity in Bangladesh over the next 5 years at an estimated investment of $4.3 billion.
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