DHAKA, Nov 12, 2019 (BSS) – Considering renewable energy as environment friendly, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid today said Bangladesh government is encouraging entrepreneurs for generating clean energy aiming to produce 12 percent of the country’s total electricity from renewable sources.
“We have prepared an integrated power system master plan 2016 (PSMP2016) for the first time with targeting to become a developed country by 2041,” he said.
“Recently we have reset our goal to bring 30 percent power from coal and 30 percent from natural gas while 12 percent from renewable energy sources,” he told a panel discussion at a three-day ‘Dhaka Global Dialogue-2019’ in a city hotel this afternoon.
As a panel speaker, the state minister joined the second day’s discussion on Renewable Energy in the Indo-Pacific and shared his experiences with Rathin Roy, Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Maliha Muzzamil, Researcher, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University and Saiful Huque, Director at Institute of Energy, Dhaka University.
Sunjoy Joshi, Chairman, Observer Research Foundation moderated the highly authentic discussion and raised climate change and its impact due to massive carbon emission.
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Observer Research Foundation, India are jointly organising the function.
Nasrul Hamid said now the country is generating 22,562 MW power and brought 95 percent people under power coverage. Power Division decided to revisit the target of generation and transmission depicted in the master plan, he said adding that regional balances, fuel diversification, distribution infrastructure, demand side management, investment and generation cost issues will have to be addressed during examining the PSMP 2016.
Maliha Muzzamil, Researcher, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University described that energy is now a highly political, as the global economy is based on political economy. She said renewable energy is also highly expensive, but it will allow achieving many goals …like hunger free, pollution free… etc, adding, “Dirty fossil fuel emission carbon, which developed countries damaged the ecosystem, so we have care about it. Bangladesh has huge number of population, but land area is limited.”
Joining the panel discussion, Rathin Roy said that it will be successful for financer when a planned renewable energy project will be taken.
Giving elaborate information, the state minister said the new PSMP study has considered all the challenges and comes up with feasible and implementable proposals and action plans for Bangladesh with aiming at formulating a comprehensive energy and power development plan up to the year 2041, covering energy balance, power balance and tariff strategies.
Over 150 delegates from 50 countries are taking part in the dialogue to discuss ideate and debate.