Prospect of solar energy use in Bangladesh

Abstract

People all over the world have been using solar energy mainly for drying from the very beginning of the human race. Use of solar energy more efficiently also started a long time ago. More recently, concern about the environment and possible shortage of conventional fuels prompted researcher all over the world to look for sustainable and non-depletable resources. Solar energy is one of the best among a score of other renewable resources. Solar radiation data in Bangladesh are very scarce. Whatever recording is available has been collected and analyzed. These collected data are compared with other those from organizations which are related with solar energy business. The daily Global Horizontal Insolation (GHI) has been measured continuously by a pyranometer, located at Dhaka University (Latitude 23°4'), for the last six years, starting from January 2000, is analyzed and presented. The daily, monthly and annual averaged GHI for Dhaka is colleCted and analyzed. The monthly average solar radiation in Dhaka is found to be 4.24 kWh/m2 Bangladesh is situated between 20.30 - 26.38 degrees north latitude and 88.04 - 92.44 degrees east latitude which is a good location for solar energy utilization. Daily average solar radiation varies between 4 to 6.5 kWh per square meter. Maximum amount of radiation is available in the month of April-May and minimum in December-January. An economic analysis is carried out with various solar technologies and recommends a suitable technology which is more useful for our country