State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Tuesday said incentives will be continued to encourage renewable energy in the country.
“We are moving towards renewable energy, although we have a crisis of non-agricultural land in the country,” he said this while witnessing a contract signing ceremony as the chief guest through a virtual conference from his residence.
The state minister said incentives will continue to increase the environment friendly renewable energy in the country, adding, “Net metering system was introduced to encourage distributed generation based on renewable energy. Solar home systems are being expanded through Test Relief (TR) and Food for Work (Kajer Binimoye Khadyo-KaBiKha).”
He said construction works for 1,220.77 MW electricity generation from renewable sources under 23 projects were going on. “Investment for power generation in the renewable energy sector is being expanded,” he added.
Bangladesh-China Power Company (Renewable) was formed under the joint ownership of the state-owned company North West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC).
The Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) was signed between NWPGCL and CMC with a 50 percent stake each. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NWPGCL Engineer AM Khurshedul Alam and Chairman of CMC Ruan Guang signed the JVA on behalf of their respective sides.
According to the project details, initially four projects have been mentioned to be implemented. Those are Pabna 60 MW solar power plant project, Sirajganj 100 MW solar power plant project, Payra 50 MW Wind Power Plant project and Jamuna 100 MW solar power plant.
Apart from this, site selection for 165 MW solar and wind power based power plant projects are underway.
The authorized capital of the company is Taka 1,000 crore and the paid up capital is Taka 16 crore.
The company will set up separate power plants up to 500 MW using environment friendly renewable energy.
“We know that renewable energy is expensive, but I believe the CMC will be able to reduce production cost,” Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Dr Ahmed Kaikaus said.
Among others, Power Secretary Dr Sultan Ahmed, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming, Additional Secretary AKM Humayun Kabir, Chairman of Power Development Board (BPDB) Engineer Belayet Hossain, Director General of Power Cell Engineer Mohammad Hossain participated in the signing ceremony.
Engineer Khurshedul Alam said the NWPGCL and the CMC jointly started generation of electricity from the first unit of Payra 1,320 MW power plant.
“It is obvious that, for feeding its emerging economy, Bangladesh needs sustainable, reliable and affordable power supply. Under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the government has already made significant advancement in the power sector. For eco-friendly power generation, Bangladesh government has adopted the Renewable Energy Policy – 2008; under which, the government aims to generate 10% of the total electricity from renewable sources. Along with other government entities, NWPGCL is working relentlessly to achieve this goal,” he said.
During the signing ceremony Executive Engineer Saifuddin Ahsan made a power-point presentation on Bangladesh-China joint venture projects, including the ongoing, present and proposed ones.
