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Wednesday, March 16, 2016, Chaitra 2, 1422 BS, Jamadius Sani 6, 1437 Hijri


Wind mapping predicts costly electricity from wind turbines
Shahnaj Begum
Published :Wednesday, 16 March, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 13
Researchers found poor plant load factor of a wind power plant in Bangladesh's coastal areas which is normal for commercial production of electricity but it will increase the cost of wind power like the European countries.
Experts felt that usually the wind turbine is installed at a place where power plant factor is in between 22 to 24 but our plant load factor is 16 to 19 and the wind speed is 4.5 to 5.5 meter per second.
"We get about 16 to 19 power plant factor in research paper done by ReGen Powertech Pvt Ltd, an Indian company, however, for commercial production of electricity from wind source we require 21 to 23 plant factor from the wind turbine," Siddique Zobayer, Joint Secretary of the Power Division, who is overseeing the renewable energy projects of SREDA, told the daily Observer.
In February 2012, government signed a deal with ReGen Powertech Pvt Ltd, for wind mapping in five coastal regions including Feni, Cox's Bazar, Anawara of Chittagong, and Kuakata and Khepupara of Patuakhali.
In 2013, the government took up a project for wind mapping with Tk 11.9 crore worth of financial assistance from the USAID. "We are yet to get the full data, however, we have calculated the wind power factor from whatever we received from the research in the last three years," he added.
Earlier, the Power Development Board (PDB) installed Kutubdia 1MW (20kw capacity having 50 turbines) plant and a capacity of 225kw (having four turbines) but both were shut-down because of inappropriate wind mapping.
In the power system master plan, the government set a target to generate five per cent of the total electricity generation by 2015 from renewable sources and 10 per cent by 2030 but it could not install solar power panels as yet.
As per the plan public and private sectors will jointly have to generate electricity of about 700 MW from renewable sources by 2014 which will have to be about 4,000 MW by 2030.
In 2010, the government came up with an ambitious target to explore approximately 500 MW of power from solar energy by 2017.
To fulfil the ambitious plan the government required an investment of US$ 2.76 billion through which the PDB will go for expansion of on-shore wind power plants, plans to implement 50-200 ME wind power at Parky Beach area of Anwara and Chittagong.
"We are now focusing on solar energy as we need to fulfil our commitment to the international community," the Joint Secretary said.
As per the plan about 340 MW generation capacity plants will be installed as solar parks, solar irrigation, solar mini-grid and rooftop solar photovoltaic systems and the remaining 160 MW capacity would be installed under social sector solar projects. However,
the government took numerous projects requiring huge investment for the fulfilment of its plan to set up 500 MW capacity in the solar photovoltaic sector, he added. German-based Centre for International Migration and Development and US-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory were assigned to conduct the mapping.
Recently, the government also took an initiative to produce biogas for electricity generation from human wastes under a pilot project with the financial support of Tk 31 crore from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UK Department for International Development in Khulna City Corporation.









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