HEADLINE PARTNER
Energy is a burning issue for the twenty-first century Bangladesh. With the ever-growing demand for energy to cope with a developing economy on one hand and the impact of climate change on the natural environment on the other, ensuring an adequate supply of energy and its efficient use has become the key factor for sustainable development.
Energy efficiency of a residential apartment building can be positively affected by, greater provision of green, water bodies and open space in the surrounding area, linearity of the shape of floor plate, higher ratio of distance to height of adjacent buildings and higher access of natural light into the indoor spaces. Therefore, land-use planning for future residential areas in Dhaka city should conform to proper guidelines of providing these elements. Increased awareness and incentives to use efficient technology is also vital to improved energy efficiency as higher affordability and ignorance can lead to misuse of energy.
A dedicated policy, Renewable Energy Policy of Bangladesh, has been in force since 2009, which envisions having 5% power from renewable energy sources by 2015 and 10% by 2020. The government has established Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. To strengthen international cooperation, Bangladesh became one of the initial members of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the only inter-governmental agency working exclusively on renewable energy. Those endeavors manifest Bangladesh's commitment towards the development of renewable energy.
As of 2017, Bangladesh has the world’s largest Solar Home System (SHS) program with about 5 million SHS. Over 30 million people are benefitting directly from solar energy and over 100,000 new employment have already been created. Bangladesh is blessed with year-round sunshine (over 300 days per year) and has an enormous potential for solar energy. We have been utilizing solar power wisely and using its experience towards diversifying renewable energy (RE) for maximum use but other sources of renewable energies like wind, water, and solid waste have not been explored that much. Energy efficiency and even its concept is not that much popular among the Citizens. So, we want to explore other sources of renewable energies other than solar to find a sustainable energy solution for this mega city.
Unfortunately, sensible use of energy and increasing use of renewable energy in Dhaka City is not going as it should be due to lack of awareness and policy implementation. As the largest consumer of energy in Bangladesh, the energy efficiency of Dhaka City can lead us to achieve sustainable development goals.
We are looking for innovative ideas, products, policies, business processes or models and incentive-based models for the city dwellers through which energy consumption in city offices and homes can be reduced or renewable energy usage can be increased throughout the city.
