|
The government is contemplating setting up small coal-fired power plants at remote areas, particularly in coastal islands, with a broader goal to contribute to cutting rural poverty.
If implemented, the plan will allow the government agency concerned to build such power plants with the capacity ranging from three to five megawatt, official sources said.
Citing the example of China, sources said the East-Asian nation runs such small-sized power plants using coal.
A recommendation, made in the draft coal policy, has encouraged the Energy Division to consider setting up such power plants that may prop up the rural economy and pull tens of thousands of coastal people out of the poverty trap.
"We can replicate Chinese technology in Bangladesh in order to generate electricity in the energy-starved coastal areas," a high official of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division said.
"Bangladesh can avail itself of the Chinese low-cost technology for installing tiny coal-fired power plants to generate electricity in less-developed coastal areas. The cost on the technology transfer can be met from the proposed coal fund," the official added.
Coal is a commercial energy source that has been used worldwide for more than 300 years, but the coal industry of Bangladesh is still at its nascent stage.
The recent discovery of coal in Bangladesh's north-western zone has enticed global multinationals, including the Asia Energy, to pour millions of dollars into the promising energy sector.
Experts say the country is looking into the possibility of promoting alternative energy fuel as it faces shortage of natural gas.
Latest figures available with the state-run Petrobangla indicate that the country's gas reserves estimated at 13.75 trillion cubic feet (tcf) will exhaust by 2015.
Experts, who were involved in drafting the first ever coal policy of the country, have suggested that coal should also be promoted as "poverty alleviation fuel".
"As coal can be easily transported to remote areas, even in coastal islands, and can also be stored, it is to be promoted as a rural fuel that has the potential to cut poverty significantly," says Executive Director of the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre (IIFC) Nazrul Islam. The IIFC, a public-owned consulting agency, prepared the coal policy for the Energy Division.
Even, the use of coal in rural areas can help stop the present rate of deforestation.
"Coal briquettes are to be popularised to replace wood fuel with a view to minimising deforestation," the IIFC chief told the FE in a recent interview.
In addition, he said, the existing brickfields can use local coal in order to curb deforestation and lessen dependence on import.
The coal industry of Bangladesh is in its infancy stage with a known reserve of 2.7 billion tonnes. The country is also expected to produce 1.3 million tonnes a year from one underground mine.
By rough estimates, the country possesses 1400 tonnes of extractable coal that is equivalent to 37 tcf of gas in terms of heat value.
Many hope that the country can net overseas investment in coal mining worth more than US$3 billion over the next 10 years.
|