‘Biased financing in fossil fuel corners renewable energy’
“And it is also unfair that renewable energy has to compete with subsidised grid electricity”
Speakers at a discussion on Tuesday said renewable energy has been cornered in Bangladesh owing to global political economy.
As a result, the dirty sources of energy like coal-fired power projects have got a big investment while the renewable sector remains ignored, they added.
They were addressing a three-day Dhaka Global Dialogue-2019 at Hotel Intercontinental in Dhaka.
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategical Studies and Observer Research Foundation of India jointly organised the programme.
As a panel discussant, Maliha Muzzamil, researcher at Environment Change Institute of Oxford University, said, "Political economy institutes are highly biased to resist renewable energy. These forces are financing in 29 coal-fired power projects in Bangladesh. And we are leading to the future without starting the reduction of fossil fuels."
"And it is also unfair that renewable energy has to compete with subsidised grid electricity," she said.
Denying the claim, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said, "There is adequate financial support from development partners. But technical challenges are the main bottleneck behind the lower progress of renewable energy in Bangladesh which is expensive."
He said despite scarcity of land and high cost of solar panel, his government is emphasising generating electricity from renewable sources.
Describing the government's initiatives, Nasrul Hamid said "Our government has also been subsidising in electricity generation from all sources of renewable energy."
Currently, Bangladesh is producing around 584 megawatts of electricity from different renewable energy sources.
As per the Power Sector Master Plan-2016, the power generation capacity from this sector was supposed to be 2000 megawatts as the government has set a target to generate 10 percent of it from renewable energy sources by 2021.
The session titled "Renewable Energy in the Indo-Pacific" was moderated by Sunjoy Joshi, chairman of Observer Research Foundation.
Among others, Saiful Huque, director of Institute of Energy of Dhaka University and Rathin Roy, director of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy spoke at the programme as panel discussants.
They emphasised diversifying the renewable sources in Bangladesh.
The dialogue is set to end today after hosting five sessions on different issues.