Alternative energy only way out of power crisis

Bangladesh is different. Unfortunately for us, the trauma experienced during the liberation war and the hope and optimism exhibited during the initial years after liberation did not ignite us to rebuild it with meticulous planning and vision. In consequence, the country lurched from one crisis to another.

After 35 years, the dominant image is one of stereotypes. And that is why we turn a blind eye to both education and electricity. Leaving aside the education field that seems to be riddled with corruption and a steady erosion of quality, nothing seems to be working on the electricity front too.

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If mistakes were made in the early 1980s, that was because of lack of experience and knowledge. If mistakes are made today, it is because of lack of integrity, commitment and competence. Undeniably true, the ills plaguing the power generation and distribution front are too many to be mentioned here and all these can be attributed to the rotten system of governance.

It needs hardly any emphasis that electricity is the driving force behind economic progress. There is hardly any sector or person that can do without electricity now. Only rain-fed farming can do without electricity, but even that farmer needs electricity for his home and shallow pump machine.

Even illiterate, desperately poor peasants will tell you if they could have only regular power supply, their lives would change. In the face of acute shortage of power that caused the power pumps run dry and household water supplies trickles the pent up resentment of the people burst into widespread protests, rallies and clashes with the law enforcers trying to hem them in.

From Kansat to Syedpur to Satkhira to Shanir Akhra, the whole country has now turned into a crisis zone with people crying for water and power. The situation came to such a pass because the country's power generation and transmission system remains very poor at almost all the places because the governments never undertook a timely project to upgrade either the generating plants or the transmission system.

Yet there are people in responsible positions in the government that do not support proposals for private-sector generation of electricity. People are inclined to believe that because of lack of coordination among the three vital organisations -- power sector, energy division and political masters -- the decision taken at a high-level emergency meeting convened by the Prime Minister in October 2005 to set up five independent power generation plants in different places of the country, each having 50 MW capacity, got stalled.

As per the plan of the government, the private sector sponsors were expected to set up about 45 small power plants and the government would purchase electricity from these plants at a negotiated tariff. But questions arose about the selection process as the selectors were given discretionary power to qualify or disqualify a sponsor.

The government presented a comprehensive plan to the World Bank in this regard. Under the program, 900 MW of electricity was to be generated -- 200 MW through five to six barge-mounted and trailer-mounted plants, 500 MW through a rehabilitation program, and 200 MW through introducing an intensified load management system. Unhappily, government had to abandon the small power plant project following World Bank's objection regarding its implementation, at least on the issue of transparency.

The public perception of corruption being all pervasive among all the players involving power ministry bosses, politicians and bureaucrats perhaps is no exaggeration. As reports suggest, the power sector has been termed by the World Bank as one of the country's most corrupt sectors where different business lobbies with blessings from a section of officials and decision makers are striking raw deals at the cost of the nation. The administration and advisers looking after the power sector even when they repeatedly failed to live up to people's expectation maintain privately that all power generation should be in the hands of the government.

As reports published in the newspapers indicate, 20 power projects planned by the previous AL government for implementation during 2001-2006 but subsequently stalled by the present alliance government that would have added 6,290 MW to the national grid by 2012 will now be revived.

With demand for power likely to shoot up to 9,000 MW in 2012 from 5,200 MW now, there has to be a bold initiative and transparent move to bring such ambitious project into fruition. The country is now reeling under a record load shedding of 2,000 MW that has triggered violent protests, clashes at Kansat (20 died in police firing) and lately at Shanir Akhra in the city.

With the country's projected power demand likely to shoot up to 17,000 MW by the year 2020 that means an increase in power generation of 950 MW per year with internal financing of Tk.33,710 crore, it is a colossal program hardly achievable with such a closed vision.

With fossil fuel becoming scarcer and its price shooting up almost every month, the planners and decision makers must look for alternative source of power to keep already strained the economy running. And the answer is perhaps blowing in the wind.

It is now the world's fastest growing power source -- a high-tech challenge to the coal mines, oil rigs, nuclear reactors, and hydro-electric dams. Experts say that wind could provide up to 12 percent of the earth's electricity within two decades. The idea of harnessing an energy supply as free as the wind generated enough megawatts of excitement to light up an entire new industry in the developed world.

After the onslaught of first Gulf War that shot the oil prices up and made supply uncertain, developed countries looked for new energy in the wind. Engineers used advanced technology to make wind turbines more efficient and cost effective than those of yesteryears. Today's models in the US are capable of meeting 10 percent of America's energy demand and within 30 years, newer versions could provide for a quarter of the US's power needs. Reports have it that machines now operating in California, especially in areas of high wind, have brought the production cost of power to 4 cents per KW.

American technology in wind power dates back to 1900 when most of the electricity on US farms was provided by windmills. To meet an ever increasing demand due to increasing number of households as well as to safeguard the entrenched interest of the administration in oil business, these were replaced during the 1930s, when the Rural Electrification Administration wired the countryside.

But the technology staged a comeback when the oil embargoes and environmental concerns prodded the politicians to look for alternative sources. With trials one after another, California in particular became the nursery of advanced technology. Researchers, in the meantime brought about many innovations: they modified the contour of the blades, some for instance, thicker in the middle in order to provide more stability. Engineers put electronic sensors atop the towers that constantly monitor wind direction and turn the machine accordingly.

In the US or in other western countries it was not the failure of the technology, rather the vested interests that kept the technology away from the people. But the tremor caused in the developed world by the growing public concern over pollution through burning fossil fuels has increased the pressure for renewable energy like wind and solar power.

In their case it is the choice of technology, in our case it is the desperate need to opt for alternative source of power. At the moment that seems the most feasible and viable option in view of the availability of vast coastal areas of the country that offer bright prospect for harnessing power through setting up of windmills. Interestingly, India has switched over to second position achieving a production capacity of more than 3,000 MW through harnessing wind power.

Meanwhile, conventional sources of power, like gas, available in the country continue to dry up with ever increasing exploitation. In such a critical situation, we have to look for alternative sources like wind and solar power for generation of electricity so crucially needed to achieve poverty alleviation program and our other goals.

Md Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examination, BUET.