Wollongong groups team up to map solar potential in Bangladesh

Implemented by the World Bank in cooperation with the Bangladeshi government, Wollongong-based international development organisation Land Equity International has partnered with Illawarra cartographer AP Spatial to develop a digital tool that identifies sites most suitable for utility scale solar farms in Bangladesh.

But while finding the spots that have the most sunshine and aren't at risk of flooding is one challenge, the project is as equally concerned with what this means for the people living and farming in the areas identified as suitable for solar energy investments.

Bangladesh, a country of 170 million people surrounding the mouth of the Ganges River in the Bay of Bengal is among the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The flat, low lying topography, combined with the dense, agriculturally dependent population means that rising sea levels and temperature fluctuations have an outsized impact.

The country has turned to solar power as an option to reduce its vulnerability to climate change and to electrify the country's largely gas-dependant power grid, but finding the right location for solar panels has been a challenge, particularly when land titles are fragmented and informal.

To address this, the project partners, who also include the UNSW School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy (SPREE) and the Bangladeshi company Environmental and Resource Analysis Centre (ENRAC) have spent two years developing a geospatial tool to enable decision makers to find the best geographical areas to locate the solar panels. The project also assessed the solar generation potential at several sites, including ones previously planned to be used by now cancelled coal power projects.

At AP Spatial Alex Pescud has been developing a digital map using open source data to find where panels will produce the most power and limited social and environmental impact.

"There's a mountain of data that you've got to process to develop a simple, easy to use tool that a policymaker could use to gauge the suitability for a solar farm," Mr Pescud said.

This includes the slope or aspect of the land, the likelihood of flooding, population nearby and distances to connect to the grid.

In addition to the technical considerations, there are a range of social factors at play, as Renée Chartres, Senior Legal and Land Specialist at Land Equity International, explains.

"In many cases, in Bangladesh people don't have official property titles - but they've been there for a while and the land is their main source of livelihood," she said.

"They need places to fish, to farm and to live, and that's part of the challenge."

A process assessing potential environmental and social risks at specific sites has also been developed and tested in potential locations. As per the World Bank investment safeguarding standards, if there is displacement or economic loss as a result of the solar investment, residents have to be resettled in a situation that leaves them no worse off.

"The idea is to not necessarily just move people around to an equally precarious situation, but to think closely about how solar energy can potentially offer opportunities," Ms Chartres said.

In some cases, it may be that compensation for the economic loss is sufficient. But a just approach could also consider if the solar investment will provide improved electricity access to areas currently off grid, thereby enabling children to complete their homework after dark or farmers to run agricultural machinery. Other solutions include providing new economic opportunities and skills for those displaced, and assessing whether solar panels and agriculture can co-exist in a given location, known as agrivoltaics.

These recommendations for solar investments were developed based on the results of household surveys carried out by ENRAC with communities who could be affected by future solar investments. They aim to avoid situations where local communities lose out when renewable energy infrastructure arrives on their doorstep.

"What we have seen in other contexts is that the benefits of the energy transition haven't been fairly distributed," Ms Chartres said.

The project is now in its final stages with the team finessing the tool before it's handed over to the Bangladeshi government.

"The idea is that the investment in renewable energy is done in a way that's fair and promotes a 'just transition', including for the rural poor," Ms Chartres said.