Seven years ago, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed to install solar power system on the roofs of every educational institution in the country. Sadly, except for a very few, most of the schools ignored the directive.
According to Power Division, it is possible to generate 1,185 MW of electricity by installing solar panels on the roofs of 92,513 educational institutions which are functional in the country.
An official said, the biggest problem of eco-friendly solar power generation is the availability of land. With this in mind, the roof of an educational institution could be an ideal place for setting up a solar power project. After installing solar panels on the roofs of a few educational institutions, the initiative did not go ahead.
An inter-ministerial meeting was held in September 2020 to install solar panels on the roofs of each educational institution.
The meeting decided that a report will be prepared jointly by the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA)
and Power Cell, a government policy research institute in the power sector, on the process and what technologies can be used to install solar panels on the roofs of educational institutions.
After the preparation of the report, it was decided to send a summary for the direction of the Prime Minister.
Sources said that SREDA has prepared a report with the power cell and sent it to the power division in May 2021. After that, there is no progress.
An official of the Power Division said, "In the current context, it is necessary to take initiative to install solar panels on the roofs of educational institutions in the mode of ‘Capital Expenditure’ or ‘Operating Expenditure’.
In this case, the educational institution will have to provide large budget or investor will be required. Based on these considerations, it was decided to review the report.
A Power Division official said that on an average, each government primary school has 1,200 square feet of roof space. As such, it is possible to install 15 kW solar panels in each school. Based on this calculation, it was planned to install solar panels in all schools.
Besides, it was also planned to install solar panels in madrasa, high schools, colleges and universities.
According to sources, not only educational institutions but also the ministries of agriculture, health, railways, religion, industry, housing and local government were included in the plan.
The plan was to install solar panels on the roofs of community clinics, railway stations, religious institutions and on the roofs of various government buildings.
Currently, around 780 MW of electricity is being generated from renewable energy sources. With a view to generating 10 percent of country’s total demand from renewable energy, emphasis has been laid on solar power generation.
However, the government has set a target to generate 40 per cent of electricity from renewable sources especially in solar power system by 2041 to reduce carbon emission.
As part of the implementation of the global carbon emissions reduction target, the country’s updated ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ was finalized in August 2021.
By 2030, the target of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions has been set at 6.73 percent with the country’s own financing and technological capabilities.
Another 15.12 percent of this emission reduction has been provisioned subject to the availability of international funding and technical assistance.
