Chaudhary said the rate per unit of electricity in recently approved independent solar photovoltaic (PV) projects is less than 10 US cents, while the cost of a unit of liquid fuel-based electricity in Bangladesh is more than 16 US cents.
The economic benefits of the transition to solar energy are becoming increasingly clear to businesses and government.
Last month, a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) revealed that the Bangladesh government spends between 52.3 billion taka ($477 million) and 110.32 billion taka ($1 billion) per year on industries, commercial buildings and other establishments. Can save between Rs. Over 2,000 MW of rooftop solar power has been installed, up from 161 MW installed so far.
This savings will come from not importing expensive fuels like furnace oil and diesel to generate electricity.
Shafiqul Alam, principal energy analyst at IEEFA, said that by installing rooftop solar systems, an industrial business can save about Tk 5 per kilowatt hour of electricity during the day, and the savings rate will be even higher for paying commercial buildings. Higher tariffs for grid electricity.
A major problem is the lack of reliable and rigorous estimates for how much solar energy can be generated in Bangladesh.
“An accurate assessment of the country’s rooftop solar potential is essential to understand the investment required in this sector,” Alam said.
He said this would send the right signals to financial institutions, while the government and solar developers would be able to plan the transition with greater certainty.