Decarbonising the Bangaldeshi economy

[madd0ct0r]

So I'm starting my thesis, on this topic. I'm also going to be running a blog in parallel, writing much more informally and clearly. The regular posting will help keep me on target with the actual thesis in terms of work and structured notes.

Work on this won't start properly until the new year, but in the meantime does anyone have any sub-topics or requests for me to look into?

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. I assume this is something in the nature of a feasibility study?

[madd0ct0r]

it depends on the exact direction the project takes

To give you an idea, two of the supervisor's most recent papers in this area:

https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui ... script.pdf

Pitfalls of oil-based expansion of electricity generation in a developing context

Basically - as bangaldesh's economy develops, power demand outstrips supply as fast as they add it. To help, permission was given for private companies to build power plants too, but they chose to mostly focus on expensive oil plants and then only run them when profitable. Outcome is a grid that is constantly teetering on collapse, with extra capacity only coming online when the price gets high enough. This is not great for the economy.

https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui ... script.pdf

The impact of the projected changes in temperature on heating and cooling
requirements in buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Pitfalls of oil-based expansion of electricity generation in a developing context

[sarevok2]

Yo Sarevok, SDNs resident Bangladeshi here. Have not posted in ages.

If you dont mind asking is this for under or masters thesis ? What are you studying ?

Are you coming over to Bangladesh for parts of your thesis work ?

Anyway a few thoughts on information you might want to look at in detail.

1. You should look into natural gas. Bangladesh has considerable reserves of it, It is the main form of electricity generation. Most of the big powerplants are based on natural gas.

2. Natural gas on land has been exhausted a lot. There is focus on exploiting undersea oil and gas reserves in Bay of Bengal. This incidentaly is causing tensions with India and Burma who also claim it.

3. There is some emphasis on solar for reducing load on the grid and micro generation in rural areas with limited connectivity. New buildings in Dhaka are required to have some solar panels on them. Wind has seen almost no focus and there is only one small hydro powerplant. Due to Georgraphic reasons hydro is not feasible here, there is no land for large scale solar, for wind the coastal areas around Chittagong offer some locations. But overall renewables are never going to be more than a few percent of total power generation.

4. See if you can find people to talk to at BUET. http://www.buet.ac.bd/ They are the most prestigious engineering university in Bangladesh and is great for academic collaboration due to their tremendous involvement in all major sectors in Bangladesh.Another source might be PDB and DESA the state run major power development companies. There is also a wealth of under and graduate student publications on this area from major universities here.

5. Not sure about importance of oil in Bangladeshi power sector actually. The private powerplants that burn in it are small 10-50 MW Off shore Barge mounted affairs. A deal mostly known for corruption.

6. Bangladesh however has been building big coal based powerplants based on Chinese assistance. Coal is also being mined locally and as gas reserves dwindles seem like a major stopgap solution.

7. For future nuclear is being seriously looked into.Two nuclear plants have already started construction http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24371991

Incidentally I will be doing undergrad thesis next year (I am studying electrical engineering). Though I cant make promises I might be able to help. PM or post here if you need anything.

[madd0ct0r]

Yo Sarevok, SDNs resident Bangladeshi here. Have not posted in ages.

If you dont mind asking is this for under or masters thesis ? What are you studying ?

Are you coming over to Bangladesh for parts of your thesis work ?

Anyway a few thoughts on information you might want to look at in detail.

...
Incidentally I will be doing undergrad thesis next year (I am studying electrical engineering). Though I cant make promises I might be able to help. PM or post here if you need anything.

Feckin awesome! I'm an Msc Civil Engineering, with a strong interest (and some experience) in developing countries. I doubt I'll be coming over, unless by some miracle I get funding for it, but I'd love to see the country.

I think you're understating the hydro power plant, - it's single handing providing something like 2.62% of the grid capacity. The country is a bit short of steep mountain valleys though
(and based off vietnam and china, big dams + corruption + investors who aren't engineers isn't a long term ideal)

I wonder what's in it for the Chinese to help the push for coal? They're already importing it themselves, I wouldn't have thought they want the competition. Are they dumping cheap solar panels in Bangaldesh too?

There's a lot of activity in solar. http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/20 ... r-projects
aim is 10% for 2020. I can't find the appropriate part of the bangaldeshi building code - do you know if the requirement is photovoltics, solar water heating , both or some nebulous 'reduce effect of suns rays' clause?

Any idea about cooking and heating on wood, coal, and animal waste? I remember 'shit coal in a bucket' was a major contributor to city smog when I was in Vietnam.

[sarevok2]

Apologies for the delay. As you might know Bangladesh is in middle of a bad political crisis and we are having a government shutdown that closed most universities. So I have not been able to access libraries or talk to my faculties. Staying at home and playing videogames has not been productive either.

But I have kept this thread in mind, I will see what I can do in the interim. There are some plans to schedule makeup classes on weekends so hopefully I will be back in our EECS department by then and get some useful information and references.

[madd0ct0r]

I'll try and get something interesting done up in the next few days for you too