70MW solar power plant to be set up at Ishwardi

A grid-connected solar power plant with a capacity of 70 MW is being jointly set up at Ishwardi of Pabna as part of the government’s going-green power policy.

The project is being executed by Daihan Green Energy Company Limited, High Korea Company Limited and Pabna Solar Power Limited, an official of the ministry of power, energy and mineral Resources (MPEMR), said.

The MPEMR proposal will be placed at a meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase on Wednesday. The meeting will be presided over by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

The proposal says the government will have to pay an estimated Tk 1,843.20 crore complying with a policy of 12 per cent discount factor and 18.50 percent plant factor. The tariff of electricity has been proposed at Tk 8.12 per kilowatt hour for a period of 20 years. The operation of the project will be on the basis of build-own-operate (BOO).

The power generation master plan adopted by the power division hopes that Bangladesh will generate 40,000MW power by 2030.

At the same time, plans have been chalked out to increase the use of renewable energy for power generation purposes. In this context, special initiatives have been taken to set up renewable energy-based power plants, the proposal said.

The inspection committee of the government examined the site in view of the proposal submitted by the sponsors. The committee later recommended setting up a solar power plant on 182-acre of land out of the proposed 539 acres.

The proposal has obtained policy approval of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to execute the project in light of the ‘Power and Energy Accelerated Supply (Special Provisions) Act-2010’ (later amended in 2021).