Power generation and pollution
An unrealistic suggestion for power generation for Bangladesh was published in a local English daily on August 29,which was theoretically rational and possible elsewhere. However, given the reality of heavy rain and floods in Bangladesh, the idea is not feasible here. Investigations on computer modelling based on Bangladesh weather data, indicates that in Bangladesh we can harvest at most 25 percent of available annual sunlight for power generation!
Further, why should we unnecessarily bother about carbon emission from power generation. Rich countries like the USA, Germany, many countries in the former USSR and South Africa use coal for majority of their power plants generating close to if not more than fifty percent of their electrical power. One day's electricity output from coal-fired power plants in the USA alone, will be possibly more than the total electricity (in KWH) we have generated in the last four years or so! It is they who should go for reducing carbon dioxide pollution.
If we go for generating 1500 to 2000MW of electricity, which can take care of our power shortfall, through coal only, our total carbon emission will be like a grain of sand compared to all the sands at Cox's Bazar beach!
The solar and wind combination for power generation can be ideal for dry desert like areas found in the USA, ex-USSR, and the Middle East and even Pakistan, where large areas of open waste land is available.
Pakistan has already installed a 500MW wind power plant in their desert-like coastal area of Sind. They have stated in a technical article that they are going to set up more solar and wind based power plants which can potentially generate 5000MW of power!
In Bangladesh, we do not have enough cloudless and rain free days with bright sunlight, nor enough sustained wind speed and large areas of empty land to go for wind & solar combined power plant! It would be most attractive for Libya and Middle Eastern countries.
Luckily, they have more than enough petrol available at prices cheaper than water! Also having large tranquil seashores, they usually go for combined desalination and power generation projects!
The "solar plus conventional" thermal power combination, proposed by the writer for Bangladesh, will not be economically justified for lack of sufficient sunshine, as well as scarcity of free land for setting up solar reflectors.
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