Joules Power to set up 100 MW solar plant in Bangladesh

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JPL signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) on December 24 to install a 100 MW solar plant in the Chandpur economic zone.

Under the MoU, BEZA will provide JPL with 500 acres of land to set up the project, which will cost around US$180 million.

In addition to the solar plant, JPL will construct a multipurpose jetty, since the economic zone area is not connected to a road, and a 37 km long 132 KV transmission line, in order to connect the generated electricity to with the national grid.

Nuher Latif Khan, managing director of both JPL and Technaf Solartech Energy Limited (TSEL) told pv magazine that he aims to complete the project by 2020.

He said that some 400,000 PV modules will be needed to set up the plant, while the government will buy the generated electricity at a rate of US$0.1050 per kWh.

“There are immense potentials for renewable energy in Bangladesh. Investment in power is very viable for with double digit return as well as very strong power purchase agreements and implementation agreements offered by the government,” said Khan.

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JPL, owner of TSEL, completed Bangladesh’s first large scale solar plant with a capacity of 28 MW in September this year. It was installed across 130 acres of land in Cox’s Bazar district, and comprises nearly 87,000 PV modules supplied by JA Solar.

By 2020, the government of Bangladesh aims to cover 10% of its total electricity production from renewable sources. Currently, the country generates over 530 MW of electricity from renewables, of which nearly half comes from hydropower. A total of 5.2 million small-scale solar home systems are also said to contribute to this total.

In February, Norwegian company Scatec Solar announced plans to install an 800 MW solar plant also in the Chandpur district. “We have signed a general MOU with the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA to develop up to 800 MW of solar in their park, but the project is still in the very early stages. The MOU was signed by the executive of Bangladesh Economic authority (BEZA), Harunur Rashid and Scatec Solar,” the company said in a statement at the time.

This article was amended on 28/12/2018 to correct an error with the feed in tariff amount.

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