Speakers at a seminar on renewable energy on Wednesday observed that though there are a number of re-financing schemes for supporting export- oriented industries to take green measures, there is no dedicated funding facility from the central bank to support either renewable energy or energy efficiency.
“There no dedicated funding facility from Bangladesh Bank for promoting renewable energy or energy effacing,” said Shafiqul Alam, lead energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) while making a keynote presentation at a seminar in the 2-day National Renewable Energy Conference and Green Expo-2024 that started at the Nawab Nawab Ali Senate Building in Dhaka University from Wednesday.
Institute of Energy at the University Dhaka and Greentech Foundation are jointly organising the 24the national conference and expo in collaboration with USAID, SREDA, IDCOL, Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh (FERB) and BSREA.
Abdulkader ED Elrahal, chief of part of USAID, Bangladesh Advancing Development and Growth Through Energy (BADGE) Project, moderated the event while it was also addressed by Mohammad Hossain, Power Cell Director General, Nirod Chandra Mondal, Joint Secretary, Renewable Energy of the Power Division, Siddique Zobair, former member, Sreda, Engineer Naznin Aktar, Director Business Development, Solaric and Enamul Karim Pavel, Head of Renewable Energy, IDCOL.
Shafiqul Alam said currently there are some re-financing schemes in the country. These include Tk 400 crore green re-finance schemes for which 70 environment-friendly products compete.
The central bank’s green transformation fund including $200 mi9llion, €200 million and TK 500 crore supports export-oriented industries to implement green measures.
Mohammad Hossain said that it seems there is conflicting policy regarding the target of renewable energy or clean energy by 2041 as Bangladesh outlines a vision in COP 26 to generate 40 percent of electricity from renewable energy while the recently approved Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP) shows the target at 30 percent.
“The government documents are living ones and the latest one should be taken into consideration,” he said.
Nirod Chandra Mondal admitted about the ambiguity in the government plans and targets about renewable energy.
“But the government has been working to increase the share of renewable energy in the power generation,” he said.
Siddique Zobair said new technologies are coming in to offer the solutions to the challenges in the renewable energy promotion in Bangladesh.
He also advocated for using solar thermal for heat generation to be used in industries.
“New generation investors should take the advantage of those technologies,” he added.
Naznin Aktar said though there are huge potentials for solar power in the industrial sector but industry owners are found to be very reluctant to go for installing solar power due to banks’ so much documentation and lengthy process to get the funding.
