Bangladesh: No Gas for Eight Proposed Large & Medium Power Plants

[phantom power]

The Power Division of Bangladesh is set to face a major setback in implementing at least eight large and medium power plant projects to generate a total of 1,700MW electricity as Petrobangla has informed the Power Development Board that it will not be possible to supply gas to the plants.

The country is likely to face an acute gas shortage by 2011 and with the current reserve of gas it will not be possible to supply gas to a number of proposed power plants, including the 450MW Meghnaghat-II independent power plant, Petrobangla chairman Sheikh Abdur Rashid informed the PDB in a letter last week.

The PDB earlier told Petrobangla that around 1,069 million cubic feet of gas per day would be needed to fuel 18 proposed government power plants with a total capacity of 3,825MW and five IPPs with 1,840MW capacity. The plants are schedule to come into operation by 2010–2012.

Petrobangla named at least eight power plants that would not get gas supply and advised the PDB to relocate two proposed 100MW rental power plants at Baghabari and Haripur to areas adjacent to gas fields.

http://www.energybangla.com/article_det.asp?aId=676

[NNadir]

1. Other than that, they're great plants.

Frankly, if I lived in Bangladesh I would be against dangerous fossil fuel plants of any kind.

This country is the front line in the energy/environmental catastrophe. India has already built a fence around the country to keep refugees (called by the Indians "terrorists") out.

[phantom power]

2. They produce no GHGs when not supplied with gas. But not much electricity either.

[NNadir]

3. Well you see though, they're risk free.

Somebody call Amory Lovins. This idea is ingenious: Build dangerous fossil fuel plants but don't use the dangerous fossil fuels. How much better can you do with conservation than that?

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Cool

Between that and most of the population either drowning or fleeing, I predict Bangladesh will be a renewable paradise very soon. With flying hydrogen-powered hearses.

[razzleberry]

4. why do the poor, insist on the most expensive fuel they can find?

(OK, this time, more expensive than necessary)

quite common, for the poor to use
expensive fuels like diesel, gasoline,
or natural gas, or crude oil

[kestrel91316]

5. Bangladesh would have PLENTY of gas (biogas) if it used

digesters to harvest gas from all the human waste that its MILLIONS of inhabitants produce.

[NNadir]

7. Well the sense of this could be gleaned by checking out a toilet bowl

and comparing it to your (or a typical Americans) gas tank.

I realize that people work under the assmuption that a gas tank is the same size as a turd, but as it happens, many Bengalis do not have access to water supplies and therefore toilets.

I thought everybody knew that, but apparently not.

How many Americans would limit themselves to whateveer energy supplies they could get out of something the size of a turd?

Not many. If we did so limit ourselves, we'd have to limit ourselves to about 2 minutes a day crusing "renewables will save us" websites, since that's about how much energy would be available.

It's pretty clear that most of the world couldn't care less about what goes on in Bangladesh, so long as there is a fence around the country.

The hundred million people on Bangladesh will not be running their hydrogen hypercar SUV's on gas from their biodigesters any more than the Americans - who actually have toilets - do. The fact that there are Americans who think that such glib solutions are available to Bengalis says everything you need to know about the "renewables will save us" crowd.

The Bengalis cannot afford to use water like it's water. In fact, there are huge numbers of cases of arsenic poisoning in that country from the strip mining of the disappearing underground water supplies there - many of which percolate from natural arsenic ores.

It's a "let them eat cake" conceit to make this kind of argument, or even worse, a "let them eat shit," kind of argument.

[depakid]

8. Actually, Bengali's already use turds as a source of fuel

Cow dung mostly.

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-110415-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Indeed, they use and re-use a LOT of things- so I don't think Kestel's suggestion reflects either conceit or elitism. Indeed, it could have quite a number of small scale applications- and could involve win/wins involving improvements in water quality.

On the other hand- the arsenic catastrophe WAS born of elitism among NGO's, the Government of Bangladesh (and negligence among the scientists who surveyed the area where the tube wells were placed). As with so many things- there aren't any simple answers- just tradeoff's between "least worsts."

[NNadir]

11. This is something of a misrepresentation.

The OP is about 5 natural gas plants that have no gas.

Suddenly someone pipes in "use shit" as if it were some kind of new or original idea.

I say that the idea that shit is the solution is shit.

It makes no difference whether shit is used or not used in Bangladesh. I suspect that it is used. It's not like Bengali farmers can afford to import fertilizers from BASF.

It is too much shit to say that there is enough shit.

I merely compared the size of a turd and the size of gas tank to point out that this is a "let them eat cake" approach to a shit matter.

Bangladesh, for the record, is looking to build nuclear plants. There, as everywhere, it is the best idea they've had with the best shot of addressing their serious crises.

[tom_paine]

9. "Methane Cometh from Pig Shit."

[NickB79]

10. I would think that waste was more valuable as crop fertilizer

Hmmm, food vs. energy. Where have I heard that before?

[Dead_Parrot]

12. In theory, you can do both

That's why composting toilets ("Earth closets", if you prefer) are a good idea: After the initial, methane-releasing decomposition and a a good going over by worms you get some pretty rich stuff for the veg plot.

The problem with small scale solutions like this is the methane is too diffuse (and too little in quantity) to capture: I don't know anyone who's captured methane on a home set-up level. It might work on a utility level, though.