The State Minister for Power and Energy has said generation of electricity from diesel and furnace oil is very costly. He termed coal the only option for generating electricity at low costs and emphasised the need for its immediate extraction. Power generation has reached a point where the economy is seriously hampered for shortage of electricity by about 1,500 megawatts. Actually, production falters in many industries where gas is either a fuel or a raw material or both. Gas supply to some sectors has to be suspended to meet demands of others. The crisis is such that some big investment proposals for gas-based industries have been deferred for at least three years. This happens due to short supply of natural gas that fuels about 80 percent of power generation. The existing recoverable gas reserve is estimated to last a few years.
Against this backdrop, coal can be the best option for power generation. Solar, wind and nuclear energies are the other options but those would take longer time to harness in bulk. The country has a proven reserve of 2,086 million tonnes of quality coal, which is equivalent to about 19tcf of natural gas. According to experts, the coal is enough to generate 5,000mw of electricity for up to 90 years. The local coal is safer as it contains less sulphur and carbon than the imported coal. It will also save about US$500 million that Bangladesh spends annually to import this fossil fuel. Bangladesh should therefore go for quickest possible extraction of the coal resource in a cost effective and environment-friendly way.