The Prospects of Coal as an Alternative Environmental Friendly Fuel to Mitigate Energy Crisis in Bangladesh Economy

Abstract

Various political, social and economic reasons made Bangladesh to realize the importance of finding alternative energy resources for future energy security. Coal is considered as one of the best options for Bangladesh to generate electricity as part of fuel diversification plan. Bangladesh has approximately 3 billion tonnes of underutilized coal resources and coal power plant is an affordable way to generate electricity. However, there is the argument of it being a dirty fuel. But due to technological advancement, the portrayal of coal has changed a lot. The adverse effects of burning coal can be minimized to a significant amount, if not completely cleansed. And on top of that, it is noteworthy to mention the coal in Bangladesh contains less amount of ash, when compared to other countries’ coal. A big challenge is the lack of expertise in handling power generation from coals. Moreover, there are some institutional constraints Bangladesh which needs to be controlled to attract investments in energy projects. Bangladesh also wishes to see better human resources management on projects to promote efficiency.

JEL Classification: Q42, Q48, Q51, P18