Big leap in power generation

THE report that Bangladesh has been able to more than double its capacity for power generation to over 10,000 MW does indeed mark a big quantum jump from what it was five years back. In a sense, it's also a qualitative leap forward in terms of increasing productivity and quality of life.
It's good augury for an otherwise power-starved nation to be in such a position. Kudos to the determined energy leadership.
What is more important than stepped-up power production is to keep it at a sustainable as well as affordable level. At this point, we would do well to keep in mind that a large chunk of this growth in power production is coming from rental power, which depends critically on imported oil, aside from entailing subsidy. To address this issue of long term sustainability, it will be necessary to improve the capacity of our traditional gas-based production units through balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion (BMRE). Since the gas reserve is fast depleting, the need to look for ways to diversify sources of power cannot also be overemphasised. In this respect, harvesting of solar power, biogas, and exploring other greener alternatives of renewable energy can be given more serious consideration than it is receiving at the moment.
An environment-polluting alternative though, coal-fired plants still can come in a big way to supplement our ever-increasing demand for power. However, we can borrow from the experience of neighbouring India, China and other countries in using the technology to get cleaner power from coal.