Bangladesh is a South Asian country having a total land area of 148,460 sq. km (57,320 sq. miles). The country has a large population of 162 million and ranked 8th position in the list of densely populated countries of the world [1]. The country again has very limited natural resources. However, inspite of having these limitations the economy of the country is still growing up day by day. However, in the last ten years the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of Bangladesh is 6.5% turning out the country to be a middle-income country by the end of 2015 and again raised up to 8.15% in 2019 [2]. Moreover, Bangladesh possesses 0.58% contribution of the world’s GDP due to its worth GDP of 302.57 billion US dollars reported by world bank in 2019 [3]. This impressive progress in economy is actually happened for its increase of industries specially export based business and opening new employments. The progressive economy of the country, and also the large population, on the other hand, are increasing the country’s energy demand to a great extent. At present, the energy consumption per capita of the country is 344 kgoe (kilograms of oil equivalent), which has been raised by 22% from 2013 to 2019 [4] [5]. However, the energy consumption per capita in Bangladesh is still lower than that of other countries in South Asia as shown in Figure 1 [6]. Also, Bangladesh has lower electrical energy consumption per capita of 33 kWh) than that of any developed country like USA (11,730 kWh) [7] [8]. Steady less power supply is a common issue for the people living even in capital or other industrial areas. Although Government is ramping up many electricity projects with new innovations, the electricity could not be well distributed due to enormous development of industries as well as the increase of populations. Therefore, it is highly demanded to increase per capita electricity generation of the country.

Natural Gas is the main source of generation of electricity in Bangladesh. According to a report of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the country generates about 68% of its total electricity from natural gas [9]. The country is also depending on other fossil fuels sources such as diesel, furnace oil, coal, hydro and few renewable sources to generate electricity. Figure 2 shows the contributions of different types of fuel on the production of country’s total electricity in the fiscal year (FY), 2019. From Figure 2 it is seen that the country produces only 0.05% electricity from renewable energy sources. Bangladesh is following the developed countries to reduce its carbon emission from the atmosphere enhancing the usage of its renewable resources for the generation of electricity. Bangladesh government has already taken many steps for this purpose

and targeted to produce 10% of the country’s net electricity from the available renewable energy sources by the year 2021 [10] [11]. This study work is an attempt to show the present scenario of Bangladesh in utilization of its renewable energy resources, especially solar energy, as a green source of electric power generation. We explained the country’s available source of renewable energy and its valuable prospects. And featured government’s various initiatives of generating electricity from solar energy. It is seen that the country is reaching a milestone of generating solar electricity by applying solar home system, rooftop solar projects, solar minigrids, solar irrigation program, solar-diesel hybrid solution for Telecom, etc. Finally, we concluded by demonstrating several research-development solar projects of the government and non-government organizations of Bangladesh.

Recently, the use of renewable energy is getting much attention due to its sustainability, low carbon emission and almost lower production cost. They can be reused due to their inexhaustible properties [8] [12]. Bangladesh is much fortunate to have an enormous number of renewable energy sources, which can play a key role to meet up the ongoing and future energy demand of the country [13] [14]. The available sources of renewable energy of Bangladesh are solar, wind, biomass, hydro, biogas, geothermal, etc. [8] [15]. Bangladesh government has plans to produce 4190 MW electricity from these natural energy sources by the year 2030. Table 1 shows the government’s year-wise target of electricity production from different renewable energy sources [11].

Solar energy is regarded as the most plentiful and potential sources of renewable

energy to all over the world [8] [16]. This energy can be utilized in two different processes: 1) Thermal; 2) Photovoltaic (PV) process. In thermal process the heat exhausted from solar energy is mainly stored for heating purpose, purifying water, generating power, etc. While in PV process the light (solar) energy is converted into electricity, which can be used for many purposes like lighting, pumping, delivering electricity in remote areas where grid electricity is not available, etc. [8] [17]. Solar PV system has been widely used for global electricity generation, sharing around 2.7% of total electricity generation [18]. The uses of solar PV system are increasing progressively in many countries to cross the Sustainable Development Scenario (SDS) level by 2030. In 2019 the amount of generated PV based electric power was 720 TW (global) and keeping this value as a reference it is estimated that an increase of 15% (annually) of PV based electricity generation is required to obtain 3300 TW (terawatt) by 2030 [18].

Due to its geographical location, Bangladesh has also high potentiality of applying solar irradiation to generate electricity. The country absorbs average solar radiation of 4.0 to 6.5 kWh/m² per day, which is capable of producing 1018 × 10¹⁸ J of energy [8] [12]. From this high amount of solar energy only 0.11% is used to meet the country’s primary energy consumption. Figure 3 shows the average monthly solar radiation that falls on some selected districts of Bangladesh [19], whereas Figure 4 shows the average bright sunshine hours at the capital Dhaka City [20].

The abundant solar energy in Bangladesh may reduce the traditional fossil fuel-based power production. It may also ensure a green environment for future

generations [15]. Hence, at present the government of Bangladesh is giving much importance on the usage of solar energy and conducting several activities through different public and private organizations [9].

Bangladesh government has been giving high degree of priority on renewable energy to shape the country as an energy secured country with both sustainable (solar, wind, hydro, biomass, etc.) and conventional energy (oil, gas, coal, etc.) sources. It is expected that the government initiated various renewable energy-based schemes could be beneficial for the country to encounter its policy goals for secure, reliable and affordable energy access to its people [9]. In this regard BPDB and IDCOL (Infrastructure Development Company Limited) have taken various methodical steps to implement the government’s renewable energy related projects to promote the energy efficiency of the country [9] [21].

The initiatives taken by BPDB and IDCOL in prompting the utilization of solar energy are described below.

The energy demand in Bangladesh is growing up day by day due to rapid urbanization, mechanization and industrialization. Moreover, about 30% of its total inhabitants who live in the rural areas are still out of grid electricity. This energy scarcity can be minimized by generating electricity from renewable energy sources, especially solar energy. The government of Bangladesh has already started to conduct several activities through IDCOL and BPDP for producing electricity from solar radiation. IDCOL and some other private organizations have installed more than 6.9 million SHSs having a total capacity of 220 MW. BPDP has also taken many steps to establish a good number of solar parks and solar PV power plants. Besides, a number of research teams from different universities and research organizations are working to develop the existing renewable technologies under the financing scheme of IDCOL. However, more efforts and funds need to be provided in this sector to promote the development and research activities in order to attain the intended electricity generation capacity from solar energy. Along with this, Bangladesh should also take necessary steps to encourage people for using solar PV systems as their primary source of energy so as to reduce the stress on grid power supply.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Hossain, S. and Rahman, M.M. (2021) Solar Energy Prospects in Bangladesh: Target and Current Status. Energy and Power Engineering, 13, 322-332. https://doi.org/10.4236/epe.2021.138022