Bangladesh is a mid-income country. Her GDP growth rate is one of the world’s largest. For any country, development is the precondition for continued growth of GDP. And the main driving force of the country's development is energy. Proper use of energy is essential to meet the country's growing energy demands as well as to lift up from a mid-income country to a developed country. Energy is playing a vital role in implementing Vision-2121, Vision-2041 and achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

In Bangladesh, about 61 percent of energy demand is met from natural gas. Among other fuels- oil, coal, biomass etc. are vital. There is a huge reserve of coal in our country, but coal is less produced as well as less used here. On the other hand, natural gas reserve is not that substantial, but its production and consumption are the highest among the available resources. Besides those, energy demand is being met through imported oil and LPG. Moreover, the government has already started importing LNG to meet increasing gas demand. Biomass is being used as a lion’s share of energy. The energy demand is also being met by importing electricity from India.

The use of renewable energy instead of gas, coal and oil has been started in the whole world and is essential for sustainable development and keeping up with the environment by preventing carbon emissions. Many countries in the world like Sweden, Germany, China and USA are currently using renewable energy as a significant part of their energy demand. Bangladesh is also using renewable energy, but it’s very less than necessity. The government has taken various steps to increase the use of renewable energy in the future, including solar home system, solar irrigation system, Rooppur nuclear project, etc.

Development of energy sector is the key factor for continued development of the country. Bangladesh needs to emphasize on the new exploration activities using latest techniques to explore new mines. Apart from reducing dependence on natural gas, it needs to be coordinated with the imported LNG and enhance the percentage of usage oil and LPG; thereby Bangladesh will succeed in reaching its desired goal of development.

Current Position of Energy Resources

Known commercial energy resources in Bangladesh include indigenous natural gas, coal, imported oil, LPG, imported LNG, imported electricity and hydro-electricity. Biomass accounts for about 26% of the primary energy and the rest 74% is being met by commercial energy. Natural gas accounts for about 61% of the commercial energy (with 12% imported LNG). Imported oil accounts for the lion's share of the rest. In this year, Bangladesh imports about 8.5million metric ton of crude and refined Petroleum Products. Apart from natural gas and crude oil, coal is mainly used as fuel in the brick-fields and Thermal Power Plant.

Moreover, power is also generated by capitalizing Solar Home System (SHS) in on-grid and off grid areas. The amount of power generation using solar system is currently about 542.44 MW.  In addition, there are some poultry and dairy farms in which bio-gas plants are being set up and this bio-gas is used for cooking and power generation. The amount of power generation from such plants is currently about 0.69 MW. Generation of electricity by Bio-Mass Gasification Method is 0.4 MW in the country.

[Source: http://www.renewableenergy.gov.bd/]

Estimated final consumption of total energy is around 57.27 MTOE. Average increase of energy consumption is about 6% per annum. Per capita consumption of energy in Bangladesh is on an average 335 kgoe (Kilogram Oil Equivalent) and per capita generation of electricity is 560 kWh with an access to electricity 100%, which is lower than those of South Asian neighboring countries.