Panacea (medicine)

Engineering

Energy poverty

Economics

Solar energy

Waste management

Alternative medicine

Environmental engineering

Political science

Environmental science

Poverty

Environmental protection

Medicine

Rural electrification

Economic growth

Natural resource economics

Electrification

Agricultural economics

Electricity

Photovoltaic system

Electrical engineering

Rural area

Pathology

In October 2017, the World Bank reported that Bangladesh continued to reduce poverty - rural poverty decreased from 35.2 to 26.4 percent between 2010 and 2016, but at a slower pace. It is well-accepted that lack of access to electricity is one of the major impediments to growth and development of the rural economies in developing countries (Khandker et al. 2009). In Bangladesh, only 29% of rural areas were covered by the national grid which took up merely 2.27% of the total energy consumption and almost 94.2% of which came from highly polluting fuelwood and other biomass including leaves, crops and dung (BIDS Survey 2004). The problems rural people face in obtaining safe, clean, and reliable energy supplies represent a significant barrier to rural economic development and social well-being (Barnes et al. 2010). Solar energy is an excellent candidate as it is clean, safe and abundant in Bangladesh. Since early 1990s more than four-million solar home systems (SHS) have been installed in Bangladesh and the number is still increasing. However, batteries, especially lead-acid batteries used as energy storage systems in solar off-grid power plants, are considered highly hazardous to environment due to their chemistry. In an effort to eliminate this hazard a novel design hybridizing solar power with hydro power has been conceptualized. In this design surplus electrical energy generated by the solar plant during daytime is stored as potential energy by pumping water into an overhead tank rather than stored as chemical energy in battery for usage after sunset. A prototype system is being designed to develop the proof of concept where a power plant will be installed in an off-grid area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. For this purpose, several villages in Bandarban and Rangamati districts have been surveyed for estimating the load demand of those villages and the affordability of the potential consumers. Based on the survey results, a village has been selected and a prototype solar-hydro hybrid power plant has been designed. A business model has also been proposed. This report presents the survey methodology, data analysis, and the design for the prototype power plant and the proposal business model.

Feasibility Studies on Deploying a Self-Contained Solar-Hydraulic Pilot Power Plant in a Rural Area in Bangladesh