According to a source in the power division, India’s Adani Group has submitted a new request to export another 1,600 MW of electricity to Bangladesh.
“The entire amount of electricity will be from renewable sources. Of this, 1,000 MW is solar power while the remaining 600 MW is from hydropower,” a highly placed source in the Power Division recently told UNB.
In accordance with a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA), the Indian conglomerate Adani Group currently exports 1,600 MW of electricity from its Godda power plant in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand to Bangladesh.
According to official sources who asked to remain anonymous since they are not authorized to speak to the media, the fresh proposal came from the Adani Group very recently when its head Gautam Adani visited Dhaka and made a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
According to the sources, 600 MW of the anticipated hydropower will originate in Nepal, where Adani Group plans to build a facility.
The anticipated 1,000 MW of solar power, however, would originate in India, where Adani is currently constructing renewable energy facilities.
Another highly placed source informed the news agency, “We heard Adani Group was given the go-ahead on its proposal.”
He added that the government’s strategy to boost its proportion of renewable energy to 40% of overall power generation by 2041, when it expects to increase its generation capacity to 60,000 MW, includes the initiative to respond to the Adani Group’s proposal.
Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy, and mineral resources, recently stated that Bangladesh is planning to produce 9930 MW of electricity from renewable sources.
Additionally, he said that Bangladesh is planning to import electricity from its neighbors that has been produced using renewable resources because the government has placed a high priority on this type of energy.
Only 825.23 MW of the 1194 MW of electricity now produced by renewable sources, according to him, is being sent into the national grid.
According to him, 30 projects using renewable energy are currently under way to generate an additional 1262 MW of power, and another 8668 MW of power generation projects are in the planning stages.
When the departing Danish Ambassador Winnie Estrup Peterson visited Nasrul last week at his ministry office in the Bangladesh Secretariat, he remarked this.
The government of Bangladesh has received an investment proposal from a joint venture of two Danish renewable energy companies for the development of a commercial, utility-scale offshore wind project with an initial capacity of 500 MW, valued at USD 1.3 billion, off the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
The proposal was made by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP), the top investors and developers in the world for new greenfield renewable energy projects.
