Solar power potential from industrial buildings and impact on electricity supply in Bangladesh
Solar power potential from industrial buildings and impact on electricity supply in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has a rapidly increasing population and coupled with healthy economic growth, is resulting in a rising energy demand. The country also aims to increase its renewable share of electricity to 10% by 2030. However, due to limited wind resources, solar energy seems to be most appropriate to deliver such a target. However, in a land-scarce country, this presents a major challenge, which this work aims to partially address.
Being a globally leading producer of commodities, Bangladesh has a considerable number of large manufacturing plants with appropriate roofs that could be used for deploying solar energy conversion systems at scale. A methodology is presented which identified and assessed 6045 such plants, which have roof areas ranging from 100 m2 to 50,000 m2, and modelled the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology that can provide power through site available grid infrastructure. Such deployment takes advantage of net metering regulations to enhance the case for such power generation. A techno-economic assessment was also presented, addressing how such utilisation can support the 10% renewables target of Bangladesh without impacting scarce lands. The results showed that around 7.4 GWp of PV capacity can be achieved on such roofs with a corresponding annual electricity generation of 11 TWh. This represents more than 6% of Bangladesh’s current electricity consumption and more than half of the 2030 target.
Furthermore, the deployment will save 13,000 acres of farmland, as well as providing power through site available grid infrastructure saving on investment if the systems are deployed on land. These results are likely to influence policy to support the presented proposition, not only in terms of increasing the renewable energy share in the country’s electricity supply mix but also in conserving much-needed land for agriculture.
Bangladesh, net metering, photovoltaic, renewable electricity, solar
Talut, Muhammad
7df1c4b5-3b6d-4e7d-871e-6e1acedfc844
Bahaj, AbuBakr S.
a64074cc-2b6e-43df-adac-a8437e7f1b37
James, Patrick
da0be14a-aa63-46a7-8646-a37f9a02a71b
1 June 2022
Talut, Muhammad
7df1c4b5-3b6d-4e7d-871e-6e1acedfc844
Bahaj, AbuBakr S.
a64074cc-2b6e-43df-adac-a8437e7f1b37
James, Patrick
da0be14a-aa63-46a7-8646-a37f9a02a71b
Talut, Muhammad, Bahaj, AbuBakr S. and James, Patrick
(2022)
Solar power potential from industrial buildings and impact on electricity supply in Bangladesh.
Energies, 15 (11), [4037].
(doi:10.3390/en15114037).
Abstract
Bangladesh has a rapidly increasing population and coupled with healthy economic growth, is resulting in a rising energy demand. The country also aims to increase its renewable share of electricity to 10% by 2030. However, due to limited wind resources, solar energy seems to be most appropriate to deliver such a target. However, in a land-scarce country, this presents a major challenge, which this work aims to partially address.
Being a globally leading producer of commodities, Bangladesh has a considerable number of large manufacturing plants with appropriate roofs that could be used for deploying solar energy conversion systems at scale. A methodology is presented which identified and assessed 6045 such plants, which have roof areas ranging from 100 m2 to 50,000 m2, and modelled the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology that can provide power through site available grid infrastructure. Such deployment takes advantage of net metering regulations to enhance the case for such power generation. A techno-economic assessment was also presented, addressing how such utilisation can support the 10% renewables target of Bangladesh without impacting scarce lands. The results showed that around 7.4 GWp of PV capacity can be achieved on such roofs with a corresponding annual electricity generation of 11 TWh. This represents more than 6% of Bangladesh’s current electricity consumption and more than half of the 2030 target.
Furthermore, the deployment will save 13,000 acres of farmland, as well as providing power through site available grid infrastructure saving on investment if the systems are deployed on land. These results are likely to influence policy to support the presented proposition, not only in terms of increasing the renewable energy share in the country’s electricity supply mix but also in conserving much-needed land for agriculture.
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energies-15-04037
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 27 April 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 May 2022
Published date: 1 June 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The research is partly funded by the Government of Bangladesh to support M.T. PhD programme. The A.P.C. was funded by the Energy and Climate Change Division at the University of Southampton, U.K.
This work is part of the activities of the Energy and Climate Change Division and the Sustainable Energy Research Group (www.energy.soton.ac.uk), in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Southampton, U.K. The research is also part of a PhD programme sponsored by the Government of Bangladesh.
Keywords:
Bangladesh, net metering, photovoltaic, renewable electricity, solar
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Local EPrints ID: 473582
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473582
ISSN: 1996-1073
PURE UUID: c69f8db0-c8ab-4870-8fc4-089f9d4c0b5e
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Date deposited: 24 Jan 2023 17:33
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:39
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Author:
Muhammad Talut
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