The government is setting up a 500 megawatt (MW) solar power plant at Sonagazi in Feni to achieve the goals of renewable energy by 2021. The government has a plan to supply 99.24 million kilowatts of power a year to the national grid and generate a sizeable portion of power from renewable sources. The project estimates Tk 746.76 crore that will come from the government exchequer and project assistance for the solar power plant.
Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) Ltd under the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources will construct the solar photovoltaic power plant from July 2019 to June 2021 period. The World Bank will provide Tk 621 crore to the estimated project cost of the project, while the government has agreed to give Tk 87.54 crore and EGCB will bear Tk 38 crore.
In this regard, a project titled ‘Construction of Sonagazi 50MW Solar Power Plant Project’ recently got approval from the executive committee of the national economic council (ECNEC) with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The government has set a target of generating 10 percent of total power equivalent to 2,000MW by 2020 from renewable energy sources, an official of power division said.
The government has been able to raise solar power generation capacity to 306MW in line with a perspective plan to meet increasing demand of power. In parallel, the government is also trying to generate some power utilizing wind sources. The capacity of wind power generation is now only 2.9MW, and a 30MW wind power plant is being set up in Sonagazi as well. Demand of power is increasing by 10 to 14 percent in the country every year. Power System Master Plan 2016 suggests that demand is likely to rise to 24,000MW by 2021.
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