'Rooftop solar systems can ensure uninterrupted power'

4 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Unb, Dhaka

Solar power systems on rooftops of high-rise buildings in urban areas can greatly help ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity that would mitigate the prevailing energy crisis to a large extent, expert said. ”We need a sustainable energy source that can ensure continuous supply of electricity,” said Dr Mohammed Ataur Rahman, director, programme on Education for Sustainability, Centre for Global Environmental Culture (CGEC) of IUBAT. The government should immediately make it mandatory in the building code for the households to install solar systems on rooftops of high-rise buildings for generating solar energy, which has already been mandatory in the West Bengal of India, he told UNB. Dr Ataur has recently presented a paper at a seminar on 'Solar energy for high-rise buildings in urban areas' at International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT). Describing solar energy as the ultimate energy source of the lives on the earth having easy solution to substitute the conventional energy sources, he said, all plants and animals are using solar energy trapped by the green plants during photosynthesis. “By trapping solar radiation and converting it to electric energy is an answer to sustainable energy for Bangladesh.” Dr Ataur said solar energy has been used by humans for thousands of years and ancient cultures used energy from the sun to keep warm by starting fires with it. ”They also kept their homes warm through use of passive solar energy,” he said, adding that buildings were designed so that walls and floors collected solar heat during the day and released same at night for warmth. Nearly 300 megawatts of power can easily be generated from solar energy to feed the hungry national grid if solar power systems are installed on rooftops of some 20,000 multistoried buildings in Dhaka, he said. Dr Ataur said solar energy is one of the most important energy sources of the present world. He mentioned that with the development of technology for a modern life, especially for running the industries, transportation, domestic appliances, agriculture, health, education and research, food storage and transportation, and recreation, the demand for energy is experienced at an increasing rate. Rapid urbanisation and concentration of population in the cities have created manifest crises such as energy, water, pollution, waste management, sanitation and natural disasters like floods, cyclones, drought, earthquakes and melting of glaciers of the mountains and Polar Regions causing rise in sea level, he said.