Ferdous Ahmed
Institute of Graduate Studies, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Abul Quasem Al Amin
Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
M. Hasanuzzaman
UM Power Energy Dedicated Advanced Centre (UMPEDAC), Level 4, Wisma R & D, University of Malaya, 59990 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
R. Saidur
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Alternative energy sources, Energy scenario, Renewable energy, Bangladesh
Resource Development and Management
2. Geographic profile of Bangladesh Bangladesh is located in the north-eastern part of south Asia and splits its longest three geographical borders (4000 km) with the nearest country India with a 241 0' 0″ N latitude in the north (N) and 901 0' 0″ E longitude to the east (E). Myanmar is the extreme southeast, and the Bay of Bengal is the southern margin. Geographically, it is mostly covered by a low-lying land delta by the river zone of Brahmaputra and Ganges and has occupied a land of 147,570 sq km. Bangladesh is known as one of the world's largest populated countries (i.e. 162.20 million in 2011) where 1099 people live in a square kilometer. The floodplain zones are covered by 80% of the country's inland areas and the mean altitude ranges from 0.8 m in the coastal zones. However, the north-east basin zones from the sea level can be found up to 3–6 m in their mean altitude, and some southeast and northeast zones are over 1000 m. Bangladesh stands at the Gangetic delta that typically has an uneven climate belonging to humid monsoon, warm and wet during the summer and dry in the winter season. The lowest average temperature that belongs to January is about 10–15 0C, and the highest average temperature is about 33–41 0C between April and July. The typical weather is mostly humid where the rainfall varies annually from 1525 mm (60 in.) to 5080 mm (200 in.) in different locations. The country receives the highest rainfall during June–September whereas little rainfall is predicted in the winter season, and experiences relatively high temperature and humidity with a great variation in rainfall as a sub-tropical zone.
3. Present scenario of energy sector in Bangladesh The power generation in Bangladesh mainly depends on natural gas and currently about 79% of electricity is produced from natural gas and coal. However, some researches indicated that the net reserve of gas (i.e. probable) that remains is only 15.32 TCF and the coal reserve is only 2.7 billion tons . According to Sharif, the existing conventional gas reserve is expected to be exhausted by 2020. This study understands from the literature and national reports that the average power generation growth rate is only 316 MW per year, which is much lower than the growing power demand. The national prediction estimated that the typical energy demand is supposed to be raised up to 7500 MW from the existing level by the year 2015. Therefore, it is sort of a nightmare to accelerate the power generation up has been increased up to 950 MW in an average and the crisis growth rate is 35 MW in average per annum since 2007. The current crisis scenario suggests that the future average load shedding may be raised up to 900 MW per year until 2015.
4. Energy consumption and demand According to energy consumption and demand, the household consumption outline of energy increased from a declining rate from 2001 to 2002 (i.e. except 2005–2006) until recently. The commercial sources also show similar trends. The uses of system energy in the manufacturing services from 2005 to 2006 also have increased after having a falling rate in the year 2003–04. The national data and statistics from the year 2000–2001 to 2007– 2008 show that energy consumption and demand were the highest during the year 2005–06 and the rate of annual increase was about 15.6% in the commercial services, 13.8% for the households, 13.3% in the manufacturing services and 6.4% were in the rest of the services. The statistics indicate that the typical energy demand and consumption are increasing in a regular fashion (i.e. demand was 3970 MW in 2007 and 4833 MW in 2011) but the acceleration to meet the required power generation is very little as the growing crisis rate (load shedding) on average is 35 MW per annum since 2007. Therefore, considering the constraints and limitations of conventional energy demand, supply, and production; it is a very critical challenge to meet the further national demand of 11,500 MW by the year 2015.
5. Leading renewable energy sector in Bangladesh Bangladesh is blessed with the abundant sources of renewable energy. The required energy demand on power generation can be fulfilled by utilizing unconstrained renewable sources. It is a fortune that gradually more energy production from renewable resources and its diverse technologies are becoming affordable, economically feasible and capable to race against fossil-fuelled technologies in the near future. As the energy consumption and demand are a real concern in Bangladesh, the extent and prospect of the renewable resources like solar power, wind energy, hydro power, biogas and biomass are necessary to be correctly spread in Bangladesh. This study recognizes that high investment cost of renewable technologies may be one of the limitations but in the very long run there are not much more alternatives. The recent scenario, preference and improvement of the major renewable sources in Bangladesh are as follows-
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 25 (2013) 698–707
Journal