Staff Reporter :
A 55MW wind power plant will be built at Mongla of Bagerhat by a Chinese-Bangladeshi consortium, sources said.
An agreement will be signed on Sunday with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to set up the wind power plant on ‘build-own-operate’ basis at Mongla.
Official sources said that the BPDB will purchase electricity from the independent power producer (IPP) plant for the 20 years period.
In December 2020, the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved this proposal.
According to the proposal of the Consortium of Envision Energy, (Jiangsu) Co Ltd, China, SQ Trading and Engineering, Bangladesh and Envision Renewable Energy Limited, Hong Kong will develop the plant under a fresh special project vehicle (SPV) company Mongla Green Power Ltd.
The project cost is supposed to be about 96.597 million USD.
The public company BPDB will purchase electricity from the plant at a levelized tariff of 13.20 Cents, equivalent to Tk13 per kilowatt hour, the proposed deal stated.
As per the BPDB sources information, the government will pay about Tk 2035.12 crore for the entire contract period against its purchase of electricity from the wind power project.
According to the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda),
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has only three small wind energy plants, with a total capacity of 2.9MW, against its target of setting up wind power projects having
a total capacity of 1152MW by 2020.
The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) said it.
Earlier, BPDB signed a contract in March 2015 to award a 60MW wind power project to US-DK Green Energy (BD), a joint venture between Taylor Engineering Group of USA, ph-consulting group of Denmark and Multiplex Green Energy of Bangladesh, to set up the plant at Kurushkul in Cox’s Bazar.
But the sponsor failed to implement the project in the last 5 years.
The Mongla 55MW wind power project is one of three similar projects undertaken by the BPDB in recent years. The other two projects were planned for Chandpur and Inani beach in Cox’s Bazar.
But the move failed to attract the participation of wide-range bidders.
Officials at the Sreda and the BPDB said, the latest studies to assess the wind energy potentials across the country was conducted by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with the financial support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
It identified nine locations having wind energy potentials across the country.
The locations, having average wind speed between 5-6 metre per second at a height of over 60-80 metre, are Parkay Beach and Sitakundu in Chattogram, Inani Beach in Cox’s Bazar, Dakop in Khulna near Mongla port, Lalpur of Natore, Chandpur, and Gouripur in Mymensingh, Badarganj in Rangpur and Madhupur Tea Estate in Habigonj.
The NREL, mentioned in its survey report that the country has a potential of 30,000MW of wind energy as there are 20,000 square kilometre of areas where wind speed in per second is 5.75-7.75 metre.
