Current Affairs

The Revolutionary Scope of Renewable Energy Technologies for Bangladesh

Think Globally, Act Locally

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), “the father of the electrical age”, said: “We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fences around our house for fuel when we should be using nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy—sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Apparently, we have paid little attention to Edison’s advice—rather, warning, and many other warnings over the years. Instead, we continued to rely more and more on the fossil-nuclear energy path of oil, coal, natural gas and uranium to fuel the economy. But these resources are limited. All the reserves of oil, natural gas and uranium are estimated to be depleted by 2050, and coal by 2250. These resources took millions of years to accumulate. Of course, we can go on arguing about the exact number of years before the world runs out of oil, continue to dig for additional reserves with more efficient and innovative extracting tools, and entrench ourselves in the nonrenewable path even more by substituting one nonrenewable fuel for another. But, at best, all that amounts to is choosing one disaster over another and keeping the wolf away from the door for a bit longer. And the wolf is, all-in-one-body: skyrocketing fuel prices, threatened national security, terrorism, pollution, global warming, acid rain, nuclear contamination and energy wars. The collapsing economies, the Iraq war, hurricane Katrina, cyclone Sidr, and California drought conditions fueling uncontrollable fires are telling us something about what we have gotten into by following the nonrenewable energy path and, even worse, what we are headed for. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth speaks loudly as a California-sized area of ice melts in Antarctica, and in the Himalayas—the abode of the gods who have been sustaining the creation from time immemorial, according to Indian mythology—the glaciers melt at an accelerated rate.
The solution to this catastrophic scenario, therefore, is a worldwide moratorium on further entrenchment into the fossil-nuclear path while, through conservation and efficiency measures, utilizing these resources only as transitional fuels towards a sustainable renewable energy path. The transition will face short-term challenges and risk, but nothing compared to a suicidal entrenchment into the dead-end nonrenewable energy path—and that path is inevitable if the risk is not taken.
Fortunately, transition to a renewable energy path is possible, but only if we act—now!

The Renewable Transition

“Nuclear power and fossil fuels are the choices of the past. Renewable energy is the choice of the future that is here today.” Hermann Scheer, Chairman of EUROSOLAR, General Chairman of the World Council of Renewable Energy (WCRE), President of the International Parliamentary Forum on Renewable Energies, Member of the German Bundestag, and author of A Solar Manifesto and Energy Autonomy: The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energy.

The Sun sends an immense amount of energy to the Earth—freely—and it will continue to do so for its entire life, estimated to be between five and ten billion years. The energy from the Sun, or solar energy, is received through the renewable subsystems of light, heat, wind, water movement and photosynthesis. In two weeks the Sun gives us more energy than is stored in all the fossil fuel reserves on the planet. In addition to direct or natural uses, we need to technologically convert only a fraction of the solar energy to meet the global energy need. The extraordinary variety of renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics, wind turbines, hydroelectric generators, solar water heaters, solar greenhouses, biogas plants and solar cookers– ranging from microwatt to megawatt scales—are being applied for a wide range of domestic, industrial and consumer products and purposes. The promise of renewable energy lies in its diversity, in the amazingly diverse natural and technological means through which this energy can be utilized. And the very first condition of sustainability lies in our ability to live harmoniously within both the limits and renewable scope of that promise.
The transition will not be easy, especially because of the extent to which we have become entrenched in the nonrenewable path and the powerful vested interests which guard and reinforce this entrenchment. Investment in renewable energy technologies at various public and private levels is growing around the world, but it doesn’t come close to allowing us to avoid catastrophe. In the face of a growing energy shortage from nonrenewables and escalating energy need—estimated to nearly double by 2030, barely seven percent of the world’s energy is generated from renewable energy technologies. Projections for such generation by 2030 do not exceed ten percent.
On the hopeful side, people around the world are becoming increasingly conscious of the problems—environmental, health, economic, social, philosophical, political, legal, moral, even spiritual—arising from dependence on nonrenewables. Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) being awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Peace is a recognition of the consensus of the global scientific community and the global public concern over the climate change crisis—and an urgent call for action. At the same time, the costs of an increasing variety of renewable energy technologies are coming down. A growing number of incentives such as subsidies, tax benefits and financing options are being offered. Individuals and communities around the world—from rural to urban settings, from a village home in Bangladesh to a skyscraper in New York City—are tapping into these opportunities and acting on solutions. Even countries as a whole, like Germany, Denmark and Cuba, combining national policies and practical actions, are setting into motion an up to one hundred percent transition to the renewable energy path within the foreseeable future.
Thanks to the alliance of the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party, and the visionary leadership of Hermann Scheer, the German government is geared up for a transition to a 100% renewable energy economy. It is the world’s most aggressive policy for transition into the renewable energy path, marking the period until about 2020 as the “make-or-break” years for the transition. Barely starting in 1990, fueled by a synergistic interplay of policy and action, the installed wind capacity has since grown by more than 2000%, biomass by more than 500%, and photovoltaic installations by more than 15,000% in Germany. Today, Germany is the largest producer of wind energy and—after Japan—the second largest producer of electricity from photovoltaics in the world.
Cuba is another example. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s also led to Cuba’s loss of access to Soviet oil, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, creating an unprecedented energy, food and agricultural crisis. But the crisis also opened a window to an opportunity: to quickly transition out of oil and chemical based agriculture and get into organic farming throughout the country. Cuba seized the opportunity and within the next few years practically all the arable lands in Cuba were transformed into organic farms and urban gardens. Today 50% of the vegetables eaten in the city of Havana are organically grown within the city limits and nationally 80% of the food is grown on organic farms. In addition, through CUBASOLAR, the Cuban society for the promotion of renewable forms of energy and respect for the environment, Cuba has installed photovoltaic systems in schools across the country. Combining policy and practice through joint efforts of private ownership, cooperatives and state programs, it’s an inspiring story of Cuba’s survival of peak oil and a hopeful example for the rest of the world.
H. G. Wells put it well: “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” We all are in the race—and every runner, every step, every contribution, counts. The amazingly diverse nature and scope of renewable energy technologies—with an astounding variety of designs and scales—offer us unprecedented opportunities to enter and win the race.

The Bangladesh Energy Scenario

“We have for over a century been dragged by the preposterous West behind its chariot, choked by dust, deafened by noise, humbled by our own helplessness, and overwhelmed by the speed. If we ever ventured to ask ‘progress towards what, and progress for whom’, it was considered oriental to entertain such doubts about the absoluteness of progress.” Rabindranath Tagore (1941)

As with the world, the energy crisis has reached a critical point in Bangladesh. Energy being the lifeline of an economy, the crisis epitomizes the “development” and “progress” Bangladesh has been dragged into by relying on the nonrenewable energy path. Tagore speaks to us today with only more relevance and urgency than in 1941. The fuel import bill is over 70 per cent of the country’s total export earnings. The only sizable fossil fuel reserve is natural gas. Estimates vary and there is no consensus. After closely examining various estimates, in the report, “Energy Strategy for Bangladesh: A Brief Survey with Recommendations,” the Energy Panel of Bangladesh Environmental Network (BEN) determines 10.6 trillion cubic feet (TCF) to be the most reliable estimate of proven reserves. How long the reserves will last is another matter of speculation. It could be anywhere between 7 to 20 years, depending on the accuracy of an estimate and rate of consumption. A speculated additional reserve may stretch the gas supply for a few more years.
Whatever amount of gas is found, the economic feasibility and net economic benefit remain serious questions. The cost of exploration and extraction increases as reserves get more difficult to reach. Explorations by multinationals have already caused critical environmental and economic damages. With the worldwide growing energy demand, the pressure to export gas has been building. There’s been a growing opposition to export, but the power and pressure of dollars and “development” aid mean little of that gas may be available for the country’s own consumption. Currently only a small percent of the population has access to natural gas for cooking; and even that supply has become increasingly unreliable. But the answer to that is not more natural gas. The use of natural gas will also contribute to global warming. Bangladesh is among the regions which are most vulnerable to this unnatural disaster. Cyclone Sidr—so consistent with the IPCC projections—at a massive human, environmental and economic cost—is yet only a sampling of what is to come—unless there is an urgent reversal of the energy path we are on. If economic development is the rational for exploiting natural gas, enough is known about the potential catastrophic economic consequences of global warming, which far outweigh—comparatively—any economic benefit derived from natural gas. The same consequences are associated with coal, which is also under consideration for further exploration and mining in Bangladesh. There are also serious concerns over ground pollution, water contamination and health risks. By entrenching itself more into natural gas and coal, should Bangladesh pave the path of its own disaster? Or should it set an example by taking a stand and demand from the world community that following that path of disaster is no longer acceptable—for itself or for any other country? As of now, Bangladesh is one of the least contributors to global warming, while being one of its worst—and worsening—victims. This puts Bangladesh in an especially strong position to put forth the demand both morally and legally. It is heartening to see how much the world community has responded with sympathy and helping hands to cope with the aftermath of Sidr. This response could also be extended to more urgently address the causes of global warming in those countries, as well, upon which the survival of the entire global community, not just Bangladesh, rests. The catastrophic impact of global warming is universal and knows no national boundaries.
Hydroelectricity contributes 3 per cent of the total energy supply. However, mainly due to inappropriate topology and plant size, the hydroelectric project at Kaptai has turned into an ecologically damaging and unreliable power source. Its imposition and negative impact on indigenous communities, particularly on the Chakmas, long rationalized as an inevitable price of “progress” and “development” raises the question of moral legitimacy of such projects. But genuine progress and development do not have to be at the expense of equity and social justice. What cannot be undone can certainly serve as a guideline for future projects. It’s also a reminder that even a renewable energy project will have to be planned and implemented through proper ecological and social considerations.
To cope with extreme unreliability of the power supply and frequent load shedding, diesel generators are widely used. But they have a short and costly life cycle, requiring frequent maintenance and costly parts. They depend on ever-costlier nonrenewable fuels, which also cause air, water and noise pollution.
IPS, an instant power back-up system for continuous power supply during power outages, is gaining rapid popularity. It’s automatic and noiseless features are attractive. However, the stored power in the IPS is drawn from the grid, which means another expedient drainage of the already scarce and rapidly depleting power supply.
Lately, there’s a renewed push for the construction of a nuclear power plant. It is promoted as the solution to global warming, carefully avoiding any mention of the devastating economic, environmental and political consequences associated with it, such as the intensive use of fossil fuels for the nuclear power generation process (which belies that the nuclear energy does not contribute to global warming), uranium depletion, radioactive contamination during uranium mining, tilling, processing, power production, high water consumption, waste storage, disposal, decommissioning, risks of accidents, terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons proliferation, and out-of-control costs. Digging for more oil or gas, or excavating another coal or uranium mine, or building a nuclear “breeder” reactor, which get more and more costly and risky, are not solutions. Add to that Bangladesh’s topography and dense population, increasing the risk many more times. Germany’s official decision in 2000 to phase out its 19 nuclear power plants by 2020 is both a warning and an example for the world. Thereby, Germany joined the ranks of Austria, Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands, The Philippines and Sweden, who have a policy to phase out nuclear power plants as a dead-end technology. However, having once chosen the nuclear path, the countries now will still have to worry about safeguarding the nonfunctioning power plants and storing their wastes for years to come at an enormous cost. Nuclear legacies last for millions of years. Rejected by those countries, the nuclear industry is turning to unsuspecting or energy starved and desperate developing countries. Bangladesh does not need to fall victim to that.
In short, while the demand for energy is multiplying in Bangladesh, a growing scarcity of firewood and cooking gas, rising costs, inadequate and unreliable electric supply, environmental destruction and pollution have reached a crisis which is impossible to solve by relying on nonrenewables or manipulating the power supply.
Fortunately, Bangladesh has an alternative—practically untapped!

“The Untapped Energy Mine”—The Renewable Energy Prospect for Bangladesh

Bangladesh is richly endowed with renewable energy sources. Sunlight is abundant year-round in this semi-tropical region. Even during the monsoon season with long daylight hours, solar radiation is as good as the annual average. In addition to ample light and heat, the hundred-plus-mile long coastal areas, hilly sections and islands provide ample wind for wind turbines; waterways of varied forms and speed provide ample wave and gravity driven water flow for ecologically balanced hydroelectric generators; and the lush vegetation provides ample photosynthesis and biomass for fuel for a variety of purposes. Compared to Germany—which has become an inspiring example of a country set on a full transition to the renewable energy path—Bangladesh receives twice the amount of solar radiation than Germany. Bangladesh is truly an exceptional, naturally endowed and integrated, renewable “energy mine.” Judiciously planned and harnessed, this energy mine has an inexhaustible capacity far beyond meeting the country’s annual 4000 megawatts of electricity need, while also generating other forms of usable energy such as heat and biogas. And however large the capital cost appears up front, that cost is minor compared to the alternative. That alternative is the vast amount of money which will need to be invested towards the, at best, short-term solutions—but in the long-run, dead-end nonsolutions—from nonrenewables, leaving the country only more economically impoverished and indebted, environmentally ruined, and politically vulnerable. None of these is inevitable if the current energy crisis is viewed as a warning, a critical turning point, a crossroads, and, indeed, both an unprecedented and one-time opportunity to act urgently on a revolutionary transition to the renewable energy path.
Bangladesh’s renewable energy mine offers such a promise. Contrary to the publicized notion that it will take a miracle to solve Bangladesh’s energy crisis, it is indeed a “development” blunder of a miraculous proportion that such a crisis could be contrived in Bangladesh.
Since the late ‘80s, various renewable energy technology projects have been implemented at the NGO, private, commercial, academic and governmental levels. The early pioneers included the Red Crescent, Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation, Nijera Kori, UBINIG, Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES), the Fuel Research Institute of BCSIR, the Energy Park of the Renewable Energy Research Centre (of the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics at Dhaka University), the Atomic Energy Centre, the Rotary Club of Dhaka, Rahimafrooz Battery, Bangladesh Solar, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Swanirvar, Solar Energy System, Ananda, First Bangladesh Technologies, Prakaushali Sangsad and the Rural Electrification Board (REB). They played varied roles as users, educators and sellers. Through innovation and turnkey transfer some components, such as charge controllers, deep cycle batteries and 12V DC lights and fixtures, began to get manufactured locally. Some attained qualities among the best at the same time cheapest in the world. Forums, workshops, seminars and conferences began to take place at various levels. The number of active players continued to grow.

The economic, technological and environmental advantages of photovoltaics, biogas and solar cookers have been well proven in Bangladesh. To date, there are over 150,000 installed stand-alone PV systems, generating over 6 megawatts of power. Grameen Shakti installed over 90,000 of these systems and BRAC, 31,000. A typical 50-watt solar home system comes with three 8-watt fluorescent lights, a deep cycle battery, and a charge controller. The cost, around Taka 20,000 (about $300), includes installation and warranty. The solar module comes with a warranty of 20 years, and the battery, 5 years (with an expected life of 8-10 years and recycling options). Such a system can save around Taka 400 per month spent on kerosene. Still, the upfront payment can be high for many, so microcredit financing helps in making the systems affordable. There are also about 17,000 mostly home-scale, biogas plants in Bangladesh, installed by the Fuel Research Institute of BCSIR, BRAC, Grameen Shakti, and some other NGOs and private entrepreneurs. Although with just a few installations, the experience with wind turbines and micro hydro systems shows great promise.
It’s a matter of immense pride that Grameen Shakti, Rahimafrooz Battery and Shidhulai Swarnivar Sangstha have been awarded the prestigious Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. Grameen Shakti and Rahimafrooz Battery received the award in 2006 for “the central roles which they have played in delivering the world’s most successful solar power programme bringing light and power to rural people.” Grameen Shakti also received the “Eurosolar Prize” in 2003 and the “Right Livelihood Award” (Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2007. Shidhulai received the Ashden Award in 2007 for its innovative solar powered school-library boats in the remote Chalanbeel region in Rajshahi.
A rapidly evolving infrastructure is firmly in place. The time is ripe to build upon it on a massive scale. With 70 percent of the land area lying outside the grid, stand-alone PV systems are already proven to be the most cost effective way to generate electricity. There are many other options: Hybrid systems combining PV and wind turbines or micro hydros; distributed generation through grid-connected PV systems for urban and other gridded areas, installed on roofs and walls, which feed the grid with solar-generated electricity, “turn the meter backwards” and reduce stress on the power line; solar powered IPS systems; wind turbines ranging in sizes from 250 watts to over 3 megawatts each; utility-scale, megawatts-size, wind farms or PV fields, some combining electricity generation and agricultural production; offshore wind farms; industrial and community scale biogas plants generating gas and electricity, with superb quality organic fertilizer and fish feed as the byproduct; PV, wind turbine and other renewable energy technology hardware manufacturing plants through turnkey transfer. All these options have successful examples around the world, for Bangladesh to judiciously emulate and innovate.
Some of these options have been tested in Bangladesh. In 1999, BRAC Solar Energy Program installed a PV-wind hybrid system at the BRAC Area Office in Cox’s Bazar. The program also installed two grid-connected systems, one at BRAC’s Training and Resource Centre in Mymensingh (1200 watt), and another at its Area Office at Madhabdi. These pilot systems have contributed much valuable data on their feasibility and constraints. Also, a 1.1 kilowatt grid-connected rooftop PV system has been installed in 2007 at the Renewable Energy Research Centre, Dhaka University, by a team of faculty members and research associates of the University’s Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and Communications Engineering. Recently a small group named ShineHardy at Dhanmondi, Dhaka starts working on energy conservation as well as generation of solar power as an alternative power source for home user and also for commercial user. They are capable of custom design for every potential client with innovative and low cost solution. More such ventures are expected with positive GOB policy in near future
A new dimension of renewable energy is being added to the energy mix of the country. However, to make a transition to a renewable energy path, which implies a fundamental reversal of the trend towards the nonrenewable energy path, it requires more. One, it will require maximizing conservation and efficiency in the use of nonrenewables, while utilizing them only as transitional resources; two, it will require transparent and accountable public-private partnerships to maximize efficiency and expediency; three, it will require stopping further entrenchment into the nonrenewable path; four, it will require proactive and massive utilization, investment and development of renewable options; five, it will require a combined offering of public education, technical support, a legal framework and financial incentives to renewable energy users; and six, it will require joint collaboration between experts and stakeholders in both nonrenewable and renewable energy fields to devise an integrated and comprehensive public policy—holistically assessing both the nonrenewable and renewable options, from both global and local perspectives—and lead the transition through action. It may seem like a daunting task. But insisting on a path which has led Bangladesh—and the world—to the crisis we are in is not a solution; it is suicidal. On the other hand, the revolutionary scope of renewable energy offers us another option, a hope, an opportunity to pave a path to a solution. It amounts to nothing less than a national task and a commitment with the utmost urgency—symptomatic of the global urgency, and a call to action—now!

Begum Rokeya—A Global Visionary of Renewable Energy

The kitchen was situated in a beautiful vegetable garden. Every creeper, every tomato plant was itself an ornament. I found no smoke, nor any chimney either, in the kitchen—it was clean and bright; the windows were decorated with flower garlands. There was no sign of coal or fire.
“How do you cook?” I asked.
“With solar heat,” she said, at the same time showing me the pipe, through which passed the concentrated sunlight and heat. And she cooked something then and there to show me the process.

This quotation is from “Sultana’s Dream,” a short story by Begum Rokeya (1880-1932), a pioneer of women’s education and gender equality, writer and social reformer, who was born in Pairabond in Rangpur (now in Bangladesh) and died in Calcutta (now Kolkata). The story, originally published in The Indian Ladies Magazine, Madras, India, 1905, in English, is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, documented expression of the scientific imagination behind solar cookers. The same story, a pungent satire on male dominated society, which antedated by a decade the much better known feminist utopian novel, Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is also a masterpiece of ecological and renewable energy literature which envisioned natural conservation, environmental protection and—get this—scientific advancements which included the use of solar electricity, solar heat collectors, rainwater harvesting and hydrogen-powered vehicles!
Together let us act to more fully realize Begum Rokeya’s dream—and vision—and Bangladesh’s aspiration for an energy self-sufficient, prosperous, sustainable and peaceable future. Such a future is eminently possible by relying on a path lighted by its very own renewable energy mine, and at the same time, by becoming a part of the global solution and setting an inspiring example for the rest of the world—which too is our shared home, under the same Sun!

Dr.Saiful Huque
Secretary Bangladesh Solar Energy Society,
Renewable Energy Research Centre,
University of Dhaka.