Switching to renewable energy impossible now

Core government officials and industrialists from Bangladesh have raised their voices together for the must-needed financing and advanced technological support to achieve carbon reduction goal in fashion industries.

They raised their voices at a national-level policy dialogue on Thursday at BRAC Center in Dhaka.

Oxfam in partnership with the European Climate Foundation (ECF) initiated the dialogue titled ‘Bangladesh’s NDC Goal and Energy Sustainability’.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and industrialists at the dialogue explained why shifting to renewable energy at the moment is difficult for Bangladesh.

“The situation in the developed countries is not similar to us. They have huge land and small population. 3,500 acres of land is needed to produce 10,000 megawatt electricity from solar power plant. But we don’t have such a huge bare land where a large solar power plant can be set up. If the developed world truly wants us to shift to renewable energy they must come up with finance and technologies so that we can get more power by using less land,” Nasrul Hamid said.

Per unit electricity cost from coal-fired plant is 5-6 percent while it is 10 percent when it comes to solar plant. Renewable is a process to reduce emission. But the large-scale renewable energy production is not viable in Bangladesh, Minister added.

The country cannot wait for the modern technology in the face of the energy crisis at the moment, he said.

The country like Germany that wants to switch to 100 percent renewable energy opened up coal-fired power plants in1960s.

However, there is chance to boost households for small-scale solar system installment. So far six million solar home systems have been installed in the country, the State Minister added.

Industrialists at the dialogue said they wanted to go for renewable energy which can be achieved only with the financial and technological support from the developed world.

“We have development aspiration. We submitted updated NDC last year by considering the issues like 8 percent growth, food and nutrition for all. We promised to reduce 79.77 million tonnes carbon emission by 2030 with the help of developed country, said Environment, Forest and Climate Change Secretary Farhana Sultana.

Anwarul Islam, General Manager and Group Head of Sustainability of Pacific Jeans said, “5000 plus factories have space to produce 3,000MW electricity from solar. Investment can be returned within 4.5 years. It is a cost-effective way.

Nafis Ud Doula, Director at Impress Newtex Composite Textiles limited, asked: “Who will pay $20 million to produce 3000MW electricity for the garment industry?”

He said by 2030, they would reduce carbon emission by 30 percent by shifting to renewable energy if supported by the developed countries and buyers.