Depletion of fossil fuel and the inability to meet the rising demand of electricity are some drawbacks for the economic development of Bangladesh. Carbon emission done by developed world is also troubling the country. This paper focuses on the potential of micro-hydropower plant in Bangladesh due to its numerous rivers and canals providing off-grid power to the remote areas and also to the areas that are still outside the main grid network. This paper reflects on the current energy scenario in Bangladesh, the need to explore green energy thus proving how the establishment of widespread micro-hydropower plant can help overcome the current power crisis and play a role in the economic progress of the country. The existing potential sites are mentioned and the means to identify new sites are outlined by performing hydrology studies, topographic studies, head calculations, turbine selection, and so forth. 1. Introduction Bangladesh, with its emerging commerce and industries, is facing a daunting task to cope up with the power crisis. There is a lack of sufficient power generation capacity, and the existing national grid network is unable to power the whole nation. The rural and remote areas have a low-load demand but the electricity supply has been characterized by high transmission and distribution costs, transmission losses, and heavily subsidized pricing. The demand for power is increasing at a rapid pace although the generation of power has not increased at the same proportion. The gap between demand and supply of power is quite significant. The shortage of power generation capacity is estimated to be around 2500？MW [1]. As a result, lack of a reliable electricity service has deterred foreign investment and held back economic growth. Energy consumption per capita is only 154？KWhr which is much less than any of the developed countries [2]. In order to overcome the heavy power crisis and rapid depletion of available resources, Bangladesh needs to opt for alternate energy sources in the form of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources. The roadmap to energy security and energy sustainability will be achieved only if the economic and environmental aspects are taken into consideration. Due to the huge contribution of 19% of the world’s electricity power from both large and small power plants, hydro power is the most widely used renewable energy [3–5]. Department of Energy (DOE) defines large hydropower as power plants having generation capacity of more than 30？MW [6]. Small hydropower plants are termed as having a generation capacity of 100？KW to 30？MW [6].
References
[1]
S. N. Uddin and R. Taplin, “A sustainable energy future in Bangladesh: current situation and need for effective strategies,” in Proceedings of the 2nd Joint International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environment (SEE '06), Bangkok, Thailand, November 2006.
[2]
M. R. Hasan, M. J. I. Razan, M. S. Shahriar, R. S. Islam, and S. M. Ferdous, “Nuclear power-an inevitable option for most vulnerable countries from the perspective of environmental degradation,” Journal of Selected Areas in Renewable Energy. In press.
[3]
N. Raman, I. Hussein, and K. Palanisamy, “Micro hydro potential in West Malaysia,” in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Energy and Environment: Advancement Towards Global Sustainability (ICEE '09), pp. 348–359, December 2009.
[4]
I. Hussein and N. Raman, “Reconnaissance studies of micro hydro potential in Malaysia,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Energy and Sustainable Development: Issues and Strategies (ESD '10), pp. 1–10, June 2010.
[5]
J. K. Kaldellis, “The contribution of small hydro power stations to the electricity generation in Greece: technical and economic considerations,” Energy Policy, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 2187–2196, 2007.
[6]
M. Borota, Mini Hydro Power Plants—Green Power for Users, Directorate for Water Management , Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Merita Borota, Serbia, 2008.
[7]
S. P. Adhau, R. M. Moharil, and P. G. Adhau, “Reassessment of irrigation potential for micro hydro power generation,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies (ICSET '10), Kandy, Sri Lanka, December 2010.
[8]
J. M. A. Munim, M. M. Hakim, and M. Abdullah-Al-Mamun, “Analysis of energy consumption and indicators of energy use in Bangladesh,” Economic Change and Restructuring, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 275–302, 2010.
[9]
Bangladesh Renewable Energy Report by Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology Of the United Nations—sEconomic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
[10]
K. Page, Asia & Pacific Review 2003/04: The Economic and Business Report, Kogan Page Publishers, 2003.
[11]
M. A. Wazed and S. Ahmed, “Micro hydro energy resources in Bangladesh: a review,” Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 1209–1222, 2008.
[12]
J. Croockewit, Developing Micro Hydro in British Columbia, BC Hydro Engineering, 2004.
[13]
S. P. Adhau, “A comparative study of micro hydro power schemes promoting self sustained rural areas,” in Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Sustainable Power Generation and Supply (SUPERGEN '09), pp. 1–6, April 2009.
[14]
D. Nassiry and D. Wheeler, “A green venture fund to finance clean technology for developing countries,” Center for Global Development Working Paper no. 245, 2011.
[15]
S. Subbarao and B. Lloyd, “Can the clean development mechanism (CDM) deliver?” Energy Policy, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 1600–1611, 2011.
[16]
S. Mishra, S. K. Singal, and D. K. Khatod, “Sustainable energy development by small hydropower with CDM benefits in India,” International Journal of Ambient Energy, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 103–110, 2011.
[17]
S. Ahmad, M. Z. A. A. Kadir, and S. Shafie, “Current perspective of the renewable energy development in Malaysia,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 897–904, 2011.
[18]
A. Kopp, “How to use rural electricity in a productive way,” NADEL MAS-Cycle 2008–2010, April 2010.
[19]
M. Alam Hossain Mondal, L. M. Kamp, and N. I. Pachova, “Drivers, barriers, and strategies for implementation of renewable energy technologies in rural areas in Bangladesh-An innovation system analysis,” Energy Policy, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 4626–4634, 2010.
[20]
A. Ahmed, “Prospects, Importance, Problems and Impacts of Shrimp Cultivation in Bangladesh: A Literature Review,” May 2010, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1612845.
