The government on Wednesday approved establishment of two more solar power plants in a late flurry of renewable energy and import of 40 megawatt power from Nepal through the Indian grid under the direct purchase method.

Besides, the government also approved procurement proposals of liquefied natural gas, fertiliser and soya bean oils in its separate meetings of the cabinet committee on economic affairs and the cabinet committee on national purchase.

Both the meetings were presided over by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal virtually.

In an online briefing, additional secretary Sayeed Mahbub Khan of the cabinet division said that one of the solar power plants would be established at Basail in Tangail jointly by Renewable Energy UK Ltd, Badal Construction Ltd and G-Tech Solution Ltd to sell per unit of electricity at Tk 10.99 to the government for 20 years.

KAI Bangladesh Aluminium Ltd and Altech Aluminium Industries Ltd will build another proposed 100MW solar power plants at Sadar Upazila in Cox’s Bazar to sell per unit power at Tk 10.98 for 20 years.

In the past week, the government approved establishment of a waste-based and a solar-based power plant.

Besides, since September 2023 the government has given approval for establishment of five solar power plants and three waste power plants since 2021 to increase generation of power from the renewable sources.

At present, only 87MG of power are being added to the national grid every day, which is less than 0.7 per cent of the country’s average power generation capacity of 12,000 megawatts.

Mahbub Khan said that the power import from Nepal would be made through the electricity grid of India, the third country besides Bangladesh and Nepal in the power purchase agreement to be made under the direct purchase method.

He also said that the cabinet committee on purchases approved separate proposals for procuring some 33.60 lakh MMBtu LNG, 2.40 lakh metric tonnes of fertiliser and 2.2 crore litres of soya bean oils.

Petroangla will buy the LNG to be supplied by M/S Total Energies Gas and Power Ltd of Switzerland at Tk 691.73 crore.

The procurement of fertiliser will be made for the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation and the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco

A Romanian company will supply the soya bean oils with per lite costing Tk 155. The state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will sell the edible oil at a subsidised price for low income group people.

The cabinet committee on purchase also approved a proposal from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division on the proposed Terminal Use Agreement between Petrobangla and Summit Oil and Shipping Company Ltd.

As per the agreement, the government will provide $3 lakh daily as fees to the company that will set up the 3rd floating LNG terminal at Maheskhali in Cox’s Bazar with daily capacity of 600 MMCF.

Source: NewAge