Solar power
Photo: Azizur Rahim Peu / Driknews
I appreciate Dr. Shabbir A. Bashar for his article entitled Solar power as a prime energy source in Bangladesh? published in The Daily Star of December 26, 2009. It is very timely particularly when our policy makers are busy like anything to promote solar energy in the country without looking in its cost benefit. In this regard, I want to add a few more points here. Grameen Shakti, an NGO, reportedly has so far installed solar panels in about 400,000 homesteads in the far-flung rural areas of the country which is equivalent to generation of 20 to 25MW of electricity or 0.5% of total demand of electricity in the country. The government has a plan to meet 10% of energy demand through solar source in the next five years. This is equivalent to generation of about 500MW of electricity. In the last two years it has been possible to generate a maximum of 25MW of electricity by installing solar panels in 400,000 homesteads. Have the policy makers thought as to how many years it will take to generate 500MW of electricity by solar system? Have they devised any strategy to generate 500MW of electricity in five years through solar system? Moreover, have we thought about disposal of the solar panels after their useful life is over? Where shall we dump them? Are we not going to create another situation similar to the menace of polyethylene bag? I would request the Ministry of Energy to immediately conduct feasibility study by reputed consultants to assess the techno--environmentalsocio-- economic viability of the solar system in the country to determine an appropriate policy of the government on the issue before too much damage is done to the environment in the name of solar energy.
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