Bangladesh developing first waste-to-energy power plant

Bangladesh is planning to set up its first waste-to-energy power plant in a bid to address the country’s waste problem and expand the renewable energy technology in the country.

The government will develop a municipal waste-based power plant at the outskirts of capital Dhaka and is forming a company to set up and operate the power plant.

The project will be first in the country to use waste for power generation.

Officials said that about 200 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste and garment waste is generated every day in Dhaka, with the waste currently dumped in landfills from where it would now be collected and delivered to the power plant.

Bangladesh has plans to boost renewable energy generation and has set a target to have 5 per cent power generation from renewable energy sources by the end of this year and 10 per cent by 2020.

Bangladesh currently has an installed renewable energy capacity of 411 megawatts.

Draft regulations for the implementation of feed-in tariff for renewable energy projects have recently been issued by the Bangladesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (BERC) which is expected to improve confidence among investors.