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Bangladesh will scrap 10 coal-fired plants.
- The country has cited the recent technological changes and the global shift away from coal as the reason.
- The company plans to generate 40% of electricity from renewable energy by 2041.
Bangladesh has announced that it has scrapped at least 10 previously planned coal-fired power plants. The country’s state minister for power and energy, Nasrul Hamid, stated that the decision was taken due to the recent technological changes and the global shift from coal-fired power projects due to their environmental impacts. Instead, the minister noted that by 2041, Bangladesh plans to generate 40 per cent of electricity from renewable energy. The minister said the country would also import hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan.
The scrapped power plants would have generated 8.45GW of electricity, with most of the plants previously slated to be built around the country’s coastal regions.
The recent announcement is seen as a victory by green activists who have long believed that the coal-fired plants would irreparably damage the country’s ecology. Activists, however, would still like to see the scrapping of a major coal-fired power plant near the world’s largest mangrove forest. The 1,320MW power plant is being built in Rampal near the Sundarbans, a forest habitat of the endangered Bengal tiger.
The United Nations culture and science agency have stated that the pollution from the power plant could cause irreversible damage to the Sundarbans.