The wind of change

When the country is struggling to manage coal to run power plants to produce electricity, Cox's Bazar, the district, which has the longest sea beach in the world, has a different story.

Every day, around 15-to-20-megawatt electricity is being added to its daily consumption of power without burning any fossil fuel.

This electricity is coming from a green source -- wind. Cox's Bazar gets the electricity from the wind power plant set up in Khurushkul union around five to six kilometres away from the town.

The plant started generating electricity from wind on a test basis from May 25.

Abdul Kader Goni, executive engineer of Cox's Bazar Power Development Board and the project director, said, "Since the test of power generation, 15 to 20 megawatts of electricity have been added to the national grid from this wind power plant daily. This electricity is available from seven out of 10 completed turbines."

He also said a portion of the total 45MW of electricity demand in Cox's Bazar town and adjacent areas is being met with from this.

Goni said more than 300,000 kilowatt units of electricity was received from this power plant last June.

A total of 22 wind turbines will be installed under this project and 60MW of electricity will be produced from this plant.

A maximum of 3 megawatts of electricity can be obtained from one turbine at a certain wind speed, he said.

He also said when all the 22 turbines are commissioned in December, the rest of the electricity will be supplied to the national grid after meeting the town's demand.

US-DK Green Energy (BD), a private firm, is implementing the project at a cost of $116.51 million, said project manager Mukit Alam Khan.

Mukit said the height of a tower is 90 metres, while each of the blades is 60 metres long.

"We need an average wind speed of 5.5 metres per second [m/s] to generate power since we are using modern technology. And for running the turbines at full capacity, we need a minimum 10 m/s wind speed," Mukit said, adding that they were getting even 15 m/s wind speed in the project area.

He said Wuling Power Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of China's State Power Investment Corporation Limited, is funding the project.

Imtiaz Ahmed Faridi, deputy director of Independent Power Producer Cell-3 of Bangladesh Power Development Board, told The Daily Star that the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity will be $0.12, and the company will supply the electricity for 20 years according to the contract.

On March 31 in 2022, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid laid the foundation stone of the project.