The Bangladesh state owned Power Development Board (PDB), has entered into a deal with a local company, for acquiring power from the proposed 18 MW solar power plant located in Bazitpur in Kishoreganj.
Solarium is the local private farm and is planning to set up the plant and sell the power to the national grid at a rate of Tk 5.50 per kWh. It would invest an amount of Tk 2.00 billion inside a period of two years. It is to use a Japanese generator, which would considerably reduce the carbon emissions.
Bangladesh depends heavily on natural gas for generation of electricity. Currently, its installed capacity is 5823 MW, out of which 82.81 % of the power generated is from gas -based plants, while 5.75% is from furnace oil plants, 3.95 % from hydro power, 4.29% from coal- based plants and 3.19 % from diesel run units. Hence, the current gas supply crisis would prove to be a major obstacle in the power generation efforts by the country to satisfy the continuous, emerging demand for power in the country.
According to PDB officials, this proposal would be placed before the cabinet for approval and then the contract would be granted to SPL. A senior official of PDB has stated that this was good news for the country.