Clean energy goal a far cry

Although renewable energy saw a significant growth last year, accounting for more than 30 percent of the world's electricity for the first time last year, Bangladesh generates only 1.5 percent of electricity from renewables.

UK-based Global energy think tank Ember mentioned this in areport titled "Global Electricity Review 2024".

It provides the first comprehensive overview of the global power system in 2023, based on country-level data, covering 80 countries as well as taking historic data for 215 countries.

Since 2000, renewable energy has expanded from 19 percent to over 30 percent of global electricity, primarily driven by an increase in solar and wind energies -- from 0.2 percent in 2000 to a record 13.4 percent in 2023, the report said.

This resulted in the CO2 intensity of global power generation reaching a record low in 2023 -- 12 percent lower than its peak in 2007.

While the global picture has improved, Bangladesh has not seen a similar expansion in solar and wind, reaching a share of only 0.8 percent in 2023. India, on the other hand, reached 10 percent share of solar and wind in 2023.

Bangladesh has mostly met the growing demand for electricity with gas, but solar energy can help reduce reliance on costly imports, said the report.

It states that Bangladesh relied on fossil fuels for 98 percent of its electricity in 2023.

Mentionable, the country aims to generate 16 percent of electricity, using renewable energy sources by 2030.

Ember's analysis shows that an ambitious plan to focus on solar energy could help reduce fossil fuel import costs for Bangladesh significantly.

According to the report, Bangladesh now faces the dual challenge of meeting its growing electricity demand, while ensuring that its power sector emissions don't follow a similar growth. Ramping up public and private investments into the country's renewable energy sector is therefore crucial.

Experts have suggested focusing on rooftop solar panels, streamlining the process of opening letters of credit (LCs), and reducing or waiving import tax on rooftop solar panels to help transition to renewable electricity.

Shafiqul Alam, lead energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), said the country issued letters of intent or signed contracts for 10,000-12,000 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy.

"It is important to expedite the project implementation, and the most challenging issue is to arrange land for the projects along with the enormous cost of the long transmission lines, for which it sometimes gets tough to feasibly implement the project," he said.

If the government provides land for some projects and bears the transmission line costs, it would be easier to implement the projects, he added.

Talking about the report, Ember's Asia Programme Director Aditya Lolla clarified that increasing clean electricity isn't just for the purpose of reducing carbon emissions.

"It's also needed to meet the rising electricity demand in an increasingly electrified economy and decouple economic growth from emissions, which is crucial for tackling climate change," he added.