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WHEN the country
is going through a severe power crunch, it is relevant to ponder the steps
that need to be very urgently considered to augment power production. There
are, of course, two major sides to be considered. The major urban centres
are all supplied by conventional electricity from the national grid. The
rural areas where electricity is being provided, also depend considerably on
supplies from the national grid. But the urban areas get top priority in
such supply. Therefore, in the present power-starved conditions, the
authorities are supplying the bulk of the insufficiently produced
electricity to urban centres leaving the rural areas grossly undersupplied
or not supplied at all.
This situation would not arise if the rural areas became gradually self
sufficient in producing electricity on their own and their best option in
this regard would be solar power. A report in this paper last Saturday
described how 50,000 people in the rural areas of Natore are being benefited
from the use of solar power. Apart from the non-dependability of adequate
supply from the national grid, there are many rural areas where it would
take no one knows how long for power from the national grid to reach. This
is because of vast resources that would have to be mobilised for laying
infrastructures for transmitting conventional electricity to these areas.
For such places, therefore, off-grid power or solar power remains the best
option. Even a medium-sized power plant requires a great deal of investments
and takes years to be set up and made operational. But a house in a remote
part of Bangladesh can have its needs of electricity met instantly from a
single solar panel set up on its roof top.
Access to electricity in Bangladesh is one of the lowest in the world. The
coverage at present stands at about one third of the total population. The
rural areas of Bangladesh, where nearly two-thirds of the population live,
are seriously deprived of electricity. As the conventional national grid-fed
electricity can only cover 15 per cent of the total households, tapping
different sources of alternative energy can be used for the benefit of the
people. The government in its national energy policy clarified its vision
that it wants to bring the whole country under electricity supply by the
year 2020. But major extension of electricity supply through grid expansion
is not a viable option for most parts of Bangladesh in the foreseeable
future mainly due to inaccessibility and low consumer density. There are
many areas in the country where electricity from the national grid will not
reach in the next 30 years. Some experts say that at the current rate of
conventional electrification, it will take decades to provide access to
electricity to all people in the country. In contrast, favourable natural
conditions like sufficient sunshine and wind-speed exist for production of
electricity from the sun's ray's and the wind on a regular basis throughout
rural Bangladesh. To fulfill the vision of universal electrification, these
alternative energy sources will have to take a vital role for off-grid
electricity generation.
Of all the options, solar electricity has so far been considered the most
easy and viable option. Solar energy's attributes of needing no fuel, high
durability and reliability and being able to operate for prolonged periods
without maintenance, make it economical for all types of remote
applications. Different private business houses have started introducing
solar photovoltaic systems in rural areas. According to a report, sometime
ago, Infrastructure Development Company Ltd. brought more than 80,000 rural
households under the solar power system, far from the power grid, from
January 2003 until now. Other entrepreneurs need to be encouraged towards
producing solar electricity for a wider impact.
There are many areas in the country where electricity from the national grid
will not reach in the next 30 years. The best option remains for these areas
to be supplied by solar power through small cooperative means.
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