Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury

Renewable energy scenario of Bangladesh: Physical perspective

The looming energy crisis, heightened by the continuing depletion of fossil fuels, accentuates the need for deployment of renewable energy resources in Bangladesh, now more than ever before. Though hydrocarbon resources in the country are limited, the substantial availability of renewable energy sources in the form of solar, biomass, hydropower and wind energy offers opportunities of sustainable energy based development. Motivated by this auspice, the government of Bangladesh and different non-government organizations have been working towards the dissemination of renewable energy based technologies throughout the country. Though this diffusion of renewable energy sources is yet to assume extensive commercial dimensions and widespread implementations, the advancement has been significant in recent years. With the objective of reviewing this progress, this paper presents a comprehensive study of the contemporary renewable energy scenario in Bangladesh in terms of distribution, research and infrastructural development in the country. In addition to this, installed capacity has been calculated to assess the relative contributions of the five renewable energy sectors of Bangladesh.

A theoretical analysis of optimizing solar irradiance: Bangladesh perspective

The efficiency of even the state of the art existing solar panels is low compared to other energy conversion methods. Solar panels are expensive, and consequently it is important to maximize the energy harnessed through the panels used in solar home systems and other applications. One source of inefficiency -incorrect orientation or positioning of the panels; can be removed by adjusting the positioning of the solar panels manually or automatically so that they receive the maximum amount of irradiation from the sun around the year. This paper proposes an algorithm based on single axis manual solar tracking system which will increase the efficiency of the solar systems in Bangladesh; currently fixed at a 23.5 degree inclination angle.

Performance of Solar Home Systems in Rural Bangladesh

Solar Home System based rural electrification has seen dramatic progress since the start of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project (RREDP), which is financed by Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) since 2003. Recently a technical audit was done for the Solar Home Systems. This paper illustrates the findings of the technical audit during the field visits to four different areas of Bangladesh. The study has revealed some technical shortcomings of the SHS packages sold in Bangladesh. These include incompatible component combinations, faulty installation, lack of quality control of component parts and lack of adequate quality standards and quality enforcement. The paper also proposes some simple solutions to address these issues so that the SHS industry will enjoy continued success in Bangladesh.

Solar diesel hybrid mini-grid design considerations: Bangladesh perspective

With the declining price of solar PV panels and increasing price of diesel make the solar PV system popular for rural electrification. The demand of electric energy in rural areas is minimum and also the loads are sparsely distributed. So, it is not economically viable to extend the national grid line to the remote off grid areas. Also there are islands where the grid extension is not economically feasible. Electricity access in rural Bangladesh is less than 50%. IT is the common tendency of the rural people to live in clustered areas. So, it is very common to see the clustered households in rural Bangladesh. These paved the options for electrification of off grid areas with small isolated solar minigrids. One of the challenges of developing minigrids is the storage system management. Incorporation of a small diesel generator not only reduces the requirement of storage system but also can provide energy in low insolation days. This paper highlights the design consideration for developing solar diesel hybrid minigrids in rural areas of Bangladesh.

Renewable energy usage in the telecommunication sector of Bangladesh: Prospect and progress

Bangladesh is experiencing a rapid increase in teledensity after the advent of mobile telephony at the end of the last millennium. At the same time the power crisis is rising. The success of rising teledensity depends on the availability of reliable power. There are many telecom service providers in Bangladesh and it is predictable that in the near future the number of operators will increase. So it is a vital issue to provide power for the upcoming operators. This paper attempts to assess the probability of renewable energy usage in the telecom sector of Bangladesh, its present scenario, and how it can be made viable for future usage. The commercial power deficiency for telecommunication and the supporting renewable energy solutions feasibility is also analyzed. In some of the individual cases renewable power has been introduced on a test basis, and this paper also cited their individual progress.

Optimized Solar Home System package design: Bangladesh perspective

Bangladesh is experiencing a great success in Solar Home System rural electrification. Recently a study of a technical audit of SHS project shows non-uniformity in Solar Home System (SHS) packages in Bangladesh. A detail analysis of factors influencing the reliable design of SHS packages has been analyzed and finally optimized SHS package has been proposed for available PV system components considering the geographical, climate and socio-economic conditions in Bangladesh. Direct measured radiation data, the sun earth geometry, the variation of the solar insolation due to rotational and revolution of the earth around the sun has also considered in designing the standard package. The performance of the local SHS components has also considered in designing the proposed package.

Carbon trading and the Clean Development Mechanism: An opportunity for Bangladesh

The adverse effects of Green House Gases (GHG) inspired the industrialized nations (Annex 1 countries) to think about the mitigation of GHGs. After the widespread acceptance of the Kyoto Protocol organized by the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the developed countries can meet the obligation by reducing domestic emissions or by using one of the three Kyoto mechanism projects in developing countries. So, an opportunity has opened up for the developing nations to be benefited from the market based carbon trading mechanisms offered by the protocol. This paper illustrates the possibilities and opportunities for Bangladesh to gain economic and other benefits from this mechanism. It provides a review of existing ongoing projects, projects that are ready for implementation, and various opportunities explored by organizations in Bangladesh.

Marketing and financing of solar home systems in Bangladesh: Assessment of success

The commercial success of solar home systems in Bangladesh depends on the extent to which it can fulfill the needs of the end users, which will motivate users to invest money in SHS systems. This paper has explored the factors that can make SHS commercially viable in Bangladesh, and how far the SHS industry in the country has come to being commercially viable. The customers in Bangladesh have found that the SHS have satisfactory technical performance, an adequate financing infrastructure and good after sales support. The commercial distributors of SHS units also show increasing annual sales across Bangladesh, despite declining subsidies and rising prices of SHS.

A smart solution for solar DC nano grid integrated with pre-paid billing and mobile application

Nowadays, renewable energy specially solar energy has become immensely popular as well as a sustainable and alternative source of energy harvesting and utilization. In Bangladesh, there are more than 4.5 million Solar Home System (SHSs) which have been installed till January, 2016 [1]. It is a natural tendency in rural areas of Bangladesh that people live in clusters and these clusters are arranged by some tens of households to few hundreds. Formation of a small scale Solar DC Nano grid would be a practical affordable solution for generating electricity and also providing basic electricity demand to these clusters. In a research work [2], it has been seen that in SHS system, more than 30% of its produced energy cannot be stored or utilized at any given time. Therefore, a smart solution for Solar DC Nano grid is needed. In this paper, a smart Solar DC Nano grid is proposed for better energy utilization. Proposed Solar DC Nano grid formed a small energy sharing (both selling and buying) cluster between SHS systems using Bi-directional DC-DC converter without large change in existing SHS systems. Pre-paid billing using mobile application is also introduced in this paper for smooth cash in and cash out after buying or selling excess energy to the neighboring SHS system. This paper illustrates the design and development of a Bi-directional DC-DC converter with Solar Charge Controller mechanism and also Pair to Pair (P2P) communication between mobile app and this device.

High efficient LED light driver circuit with temperature compensation for SHS

Nowadays semiconductor LED light has become more popular. A driver circuit is needed to drive the LED light in constant current for better luminous efficacy and durability. This work develops a SEPIC based highly efficient LED light Driver circuit with temperature compensation for Solar Home System application where the cost of electrical energy is much higher than grid energy. The high efficiency driver circuit provides constant current to the LED light. Incorporation of temperature compensation provides better efficiency instead of producing less heat thus the requirement of heat dissipation is reduced. A SEPIC based high frequency switching circuit is suggested for maintaining constant current for driving the LEDs. A microcontroller and a temperature sensor ensure the better luminous efficacy rather producing less heat. Simulated result shows that temperature compensated LED driver circuit can increase the driver efficiency up to 99.2%. The circuit operation, flow diagram, simulated and test results are discussed in this paper.