Bangladesh

The government has signed Memorandum of Understanding with Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar to inter-alia improve power connectivity and enhance energy trading in the region.

The renewables business of the conglomerate will undertake its first project across the border by providing engineering, procurement and construction services on a Rs12.6 crore, 3.1 MW array for a German-Bangladeshi knitwear company which will buy the power generated for Rs5.71518/kWh.

Dhaka has heeded complaints about Indian manufacturers allegedly dumping sub-standard PV products over the border and issued a requirement for modules, inverters, charge controllers and batteries to attain IEC electrical standards.

Visitors to this year’s Solar Bangladesh Expo have called for the implementation of quality standards on solar imports – action which the government is currently pursuing – with one industry insider rubbishing Indian-made products.

In July, Bangladesh’s renewable generation capacity surpassed the 600 MW milestone. A solid achievement, even though the country still lags behind the government’s official plan to produce 10%, or 2 GW, of its electricity from clean sources by 2020. But with deployment rising in both the commercial rooftop and utility-scale solar segments, development could be poised to accelerate.

Developer ib vogt beat rival Scatec Solar to land the contract for a project which will sell solar electricity to the Bangladeshi government for $0.1094/kWh for 20 years.

The two nations have signed an MoU to set up the capacity in the north of Bangladesh along with 50 MW of wind power facilities in the south, near the port of Payra. China will supply an estimated $500m with the host nation freeing up land for the projects.

The Indian Ministries of External Affairs and Power, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), organized the South Asia Power Summit 2018, held recently in New Delhi. The daylong conference highlighted that diversity of energy resources in South Asian countries brings the opportunity to provide affordable, low-carbon energy in the region. The business case for enhanced energy trading in the region, and challenges faced in inter-country electricity trading were important elements of this discussion.

The International Solar Alliance has selected India’s Super Energy Service Company to roll out its agricultural solar initiative across 13 nations. Almost a third of India’s three crore of agricultural pumps are currently powered by diesel.

Bangladesh will buy at least 2 GW of solar power from India, which will be mostly produced from large PV power projects in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, according to reports.