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Clean EDGE Asia Fellow Shafiqul Alam provides an overview of the renewable energy potential in Bangladesh, outlines the economic and energy security benefits of renewable energy, and identifies renewable energy measures that could be implemented. He also identifies financing mechanisms to foster renewable energy development as well as the necessary stepping stones to create an enabling ecosystem for scaling up renewable energy.

During the last decade, Bangladesh has made great strides toward accelerating power-generation capacity to ensure 100% access to electricity. The country officially announced universal access to electricity in 2022, yet it faces uphill challenges, including overcapacity, increasing reliance on imported fossil fuels, rising electricity costs, and load shedding.[1] Although renewable energies such as solar and wind are highly competitive compared to fossil fuels, the country’s success with renewable energy is limited. The price volatility of fossil fuels, driven by the Ukraine crisis, manifests that renewable energy is the pathway that Bangladesh must choose to reduce its reliance on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other fossil fuels. There is, however, an information asymmetry over the potential of renewable energy as well as financing instruments and applicable interest rates for loans.