What’s land got to do with it? Finding solutions to the green energy land challenge in Bangladesh

A significant investment is required to get to targets set for 2030 and 2041. Under the current baseline only around 3% of renewables contributes to the country’s energy needs. Benefiting from high UV penetration, the obvious contender to reach this target is the rapid and intense installation of solar farms, otherwise known as utility-scale solar connecting to the nation’s power grid.

With a long history partnering with the private sector to use solar home systems to power rural areas with basic electricity, Bangladesh has been credited with the fastest and largest solar program in the world, installing more than six million home systems in rural off grid areas. Utility-scale solar, however, lags behind off-grid options, with only eight on-grid utility-scale solar sites across the country (collectively constituting 216-megawatt (MW) capacity).[1]

To understand how utility-scale solar can be better supported in Bangladesh LEI is working with the World Bank, in partnership with the Dhaka-based Environment and Resource Analysis Centre (ENRAC), and the UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy to prepare early assessment and decision-making tools.

Over the last six months we have analysed the country’s energy and land policies, engaged with private investors to understand their views on the challenges for utility scale-solar investment, undertaken a literature review on utility-scale solar (and wind) potential in Bangladesh, conducted a technical and economic analysis of the potential of five cancelled coal power plants and analysed the potential environmental and social risks that may arise in undertaking such an investment. The results have been presented to government stakeholders and utility companies for feedback.

We are also developing a usable tool for the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources to help identify which areas of the country would be technically suitable for solar farm investments, considering inter alia the physical terrain, the settlements in that area and current land usage, as well as a tool to assess the economic and technical potential of specific sites. Our final output involves testing this methodology on a 20 000-acre (8093 hectares) site in the north-east of the country, in Jamalpur district.

What have we learnt so far?

1. Investments in utility-scale solar can significantly contribute to Bangladesh’s different energy needs – including for an affordable, reliable and carbon free power supply, while also remaining financially viable. Using our technical and economic assessment tools for the five cancelled coal power plant indicated that collectively they could supply 3788 MW of power, a more than 15-fold increase on current utility-scale solar installations and 21% of the Mujib Plan RE target for 2030 of 16 000 MW. The benefits assessed include reduced power prices for consumers while our modelling suggests that all five sites will be financially profitable, even after taking into account site preparation costs and protections against cyclone and flooding risks.
2. One of the major challenges blocking the growth of utility-scale solar is accessing the large amounts of land needed for these kinds of investments investments. Utility-scale solar requires large tracts of land – with recent estimates suggesting approximately three acres of land per MW installed. The average size of a utility-scale solar site in Bangladesh is 29 MW which equates to 87 acres per site (approximately 87 football fields). The investment requires an area of land in a single place, which implies that investments usually need to be undertaken in rural areas.
3. Identifying land that is technically suitable and available for solar investments is a complex task. Not all land is technically suitable for utility scale PV solar. Several factors should be considered during the planning phase in terms of land technical These include suitability of the land in terms of topography, soil, open sky; risk of location in terms of exposure to natural disasters and seasonal flooding; adequacy of solar irradiance; prospect of land accretion and opportunity for new land reclamation; vicinity of transmission network or future upgradation/extension plans and facility of interconnection to the nearest substation and road access. Even if land is technically suitable for solar PV (or wind) it is not necessarily accessible. Considerations influencing accessibility include who owns the land and any existing occupants and compliance with national land use policies, planning and environment regulations. Restrictions may be in place, for example, on converting the identified site for other purposes (especially if it is classified forest land or agricultural land). Clearances or permits may also be required, especially under environmental protection legislation to commence a project. The building of solar PV sites also requires a social license to operate, without which the project risks disputes and barriers to construction and implementation.
4. In Bangladesh identifying and accessing land for renewable energy is particularly complicated. As the eighth most densely populated country in the world, with more than 1265 people in one square kilometre of land, and a high dependency on agricultural for the rural household food security needs, there is no clear mechanism currently in place to identify technically suitable and available land for renewable energy purposes (either solar or wind). Private sector consultation reveals that land negotiations for solar farm investments can take years, leading to the cancellation of contracts. Prevailing with the investment in the absence of a social license from the community to operate is too risky.
5. Reforms to the land administration system are critical to ensure equitable and streamlined access to land for solar investments: Bangladesh’s antiquated land system which retains many features from the colonial administration. Overall is not fit to identify landowners with certainty, with processes slow and disjointed, and land records and land use data mostly out of date and manually updated. This is partly because informal occupancy of land prevails –as a result of the limited perceived benefits engaging with the land administration in the case of rights holders, as well as the high number of landless people occupying land without formal rights due to land scarcity. Uncertainty over land rights means that land conflicts are common and plague the court system, including in cases of compulsory acquisition. While the government has initiated reforms towards an automated, digital system, these are yet to be fully implemented.

What can be done?

Land is not the only challenge for achieving Bangladesh’s renewable energy targets. Nonetheless we can consider that identifying and accessing suitable land issue remains one of the most significant stumbling blocks to achieving the 30% by 2030 target. Progressive work on the land administration system – linking diverse land records across institutions through digital means building on the reforms currently being undertaking, facilitating easy identification of (unused) public lands and disseminating our tools to include land information and population/settlement data to the Ministry of Energy will be key next steps to reach the 2030 and 2041 climate goals.

It is worth noting, in view of the renewed national climate commitments emerging from COP27 in Egypt, that the positive synergies between an effective land administration system and achieving a green energy transition is not unique to Bangladesh. Even in contexts where land scarcity is not an issue, addressing the social, environmental and tenure issues of land access is critical to successful green energy infrastructure investments. Investment failure, including drawn-out negotiations and community resistance can be avoided through the institutionalisation of land use policies that reflect an adequate balance between food security requirements, biodiversity protection and green energy needs. Further the development of up-to-date electronic land records and land use information help to identify who is on land, how land is classified across the country and where land could be converted to serve renewable energy purposes without increasing land competition and undermining other equally important policy objectives such as food security, rural housing and the protection of biodiversity. In short, land has much to do with a smooth and just transition to renewable energy.

[1] SREDA Website