Govt working on figuring out using hydrogen, ammonia: Nasrul

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said that realistic measures have been taken by the government for power generation.

The Power Division has been working on figuring out how to use hydrogen and ammonia as energy alongside the conventional sources of energy, he told a workshop, titled “Techno-Economic Study of Electricity Generation Technologies for Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities”, at Bidyut Bhaban in Dhaka on Monday, reports UNB.

Nasrul informed the workshop that nuclear power will come to the national grid soon. “Some 12,047 MW of electricity is now in different stages of generation.”

He said availability of non-agricultural land is one of the major problems in the promotion of renewable energy in Bangladesh.

“We are also moving forward with onshore and offshore wind power. One of our main goals is to provide uninterrupted power at affordable cost. Special emphasis is now being laid on modernisation of transmission and distribution systems and also grid synchronisation,” he added.

Bloomberg NEF, a US technology and financial strategic research organisation, presented research on various sources of power generation in Bangladesh and its cost at the workshop.

The head of Bloomberg's Asia Pacific Region Dr Ali Izadi, South Asia Market Leader Isshu Kikuma and Senior Associate Tarun Blakrishnan presented the research paper.

They emphasised supporting renewable energy at the utility scale, increasing the use of rooftop and floating solar, and training for clean technology jobs.

They pointed out that carbon emissions can be reduced by mixing coal with ammonia or natural gas with hydrogen, but the cost will be high, while the use of batteries with solar or batteries with wind is much more cost-effective.

The event conducted by Power Division Joint Secretary Nirod Chandra Mandal was also addressed, among others, by MP Nahim Razzak, Power Division Senior Secretary Md Habibur Rahman, Srade Chairman Munira Sultana, BPDB Chairman Md Mahbubur Rahman, BREB Chairman Ajay Kumar Chakraborty, Power Cell Director General Mohammad Hossain, Professor of BUET Ijaz Ahmed, Professor of Dhaka University Badrul Imam, Energy Research Center Director Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury and heads of departments.