& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

INTERVIEW

Power to Bangladesh

Shaiuer Khan
Bangladesh is the world's fastest growing small gas engines market for power developers, says Stephen It Bolze, president of Power Generation Division of global power giant General Electric (GE) Company.
"In the last six months, we had orders to provide 20 'Jenbacher' gas engines-- each with three megawatt generation capacity-- for various power schemes under the Rural Electrification Board (Reb)," Bolze told The Daily Star yesterday.
The GE, through its local agent Orient has sold around 100 such Jenbacher engines totaling 250 mw generation capacity in Bangladesh so far. He says this number will climb up to 200 by 2009.
"Why is that? Because these small gas engines can be used off the national grid. These are small and compact. It can operate on natural gas as well as bio-gas, sewage, corn gas etc and this engine has the highest efficiency in producing power from minimum usage of gas," says Bolze, who arrived in Dhaka yesterday morning on his private jet from GE's headquarters in New York to talk business with various power companies.
Other than selling gas
engines, the GE has sold gas turbines of 500 mw capacity in Bangladesh so far. Some bid ders of the Sirajganj and Bibiyana 450 mw power projects have also held primary discussions for supply of turbines for these projects.
"Our experience in Bangladesh for the last 10 years is very good," he said.
Such a wide presence now demands that GE will open, jointly With its local agent Orient, a repair service station for all GE Jenbacher devices. "The detailed plans for this service investment will be available within six to nine months,” Bolzenoted.
He said Bangladesh was pursuing the right power policy at the moment to handle its power crisis.
"You need to have some large gas turbine-based power projects to handle base load of power. At the same time, smaller engines should be encouraged to promote rural electrification," Bolze pointed out.
Acknowledging the fact that there will be gas supply shortfall from 2011-12 onwards, he noted that within that period explorations and developments can add new gas sources to cater to its future power demands.
But more importantly, Bangladesh should now start tapping coal based and coal
gasification power prospects. "Coal based power needs time, but these will be large scale projects. Natural gas is good for short term power generation," he pointed out.
GE is also currently developing a 650 mw power plant run by gasification of coal from its deposit in the USA.
"Our coal gasification technology is very environmentfriendly. Its emission level is near to that of natural gas-fired power plants," he said.
Again he suggested that Bangladesh can also opt for bio-gas based power plants which can be installed very quickly. "About 30 percent of the Jenbacher gas engines world wide operate on biogas," he quipped.
Founded by inventor Thomas Edison in 1898, the GE stands as number one in gas turbine technology. With an annual turnover of 18 billion dollars, GE Power is heavily investing in developing wind and solar power technologies.
He gave a rough estimate that presently the world consumes 5000 gigawatts (gw) of power daily, of which the USA alone consumes 1000 gw. "Within the next 20 years time, the world demand for power will double. In developing countries, this demand will be tripled," the GE Power chief said.
Of this global power sce-
nario, 50 to 60 percent is thermal power-- mainly generated by coal. It is followed by power generated by gas, oil, nuclear, hydro and renewable technologies.
"Coal and gas will continue to be big source in the future," he pointed out, "meanwhile, wind and renewable power is also growing. In fact, right now there is supply constraint for wind power. Our wind power business tripled in the last four years and the cost of wind power is declining."
But solar power continues to be expensive. "But it isdraw-ing increased attention in Germany or Spain. GE is investing heavily in solar power related research on its own and also by joining hands with different governments," he said.
He added that coal fired power now costs US 5 to 6 cents globally, gas 6 to 7 cents, wind 8 cents and solar 30 to 35 cents. "But in the last 10 years, the price of wind power fell by 50 percent. So we believe in the coming future, the price of solar power will also drop," Bolze pointed out.
The GE did not focus much on solar power in Bangladesh, though this technology has become very popular in remote coastal locations of the country. Bolze says it will focus on solar power in the country in the future.