Wind power for electricity generation in Bangladesh

This paper highlights research related to wind energy in Bangladesh which originated as early as in 1979 in collaboration with Free University of Brussels (FUB), Belgium through contacts with the ministry of Co-operation and Development, Government of Belgium and Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels. Some organizations like GTZ, LGED, BCAS, BUET, and BCSIR have started measuring wind speeds at some typical locations of Bangladesh with modern equipment. The SRE project of LGED, in collaboration with BUET and has taken up a study titled “Wind Energy Resource Mapping (WERM)”. The study has been designed in a more comprehensive way aiming at systematic observation of wind regime in initially 20 different suitable locations including Chittagong Hill Tracts region over a longer period of time. A renewable energy policy entitled “Renewable Energy Policy of Bangladesh” has already been adopted by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The policy has set up targets for developing renewable energy resources to meet 5% of the total power demand by 2015 and 10% by 2020. For this purpose, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has installed 50 small wind turbines (the first wind firm in Bangladesh) each having 20 kW capacities, totaling one mega-watt wind battery hydride power plant in Kutubdia Island, in the southern region. The feasibility study of wind power and physical investigation were made on the wind farm.