Feasibility Study of Off-Grid Sustainable Energy System for Coastal Bhasan Char to Rehabilitate Rohinga Refugees

Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is implementing an emergency humanitarian project at coastal island Bhasan Char under Hatiya of Noakhali District, from September 2017 to temporarily rehabilitate a portion of incoming Rohinga refugees before they can repatriate to their home land, Myanmar. Under this project, GoB will carry out land development, construction of embankment as well as other infrastructures. This study is aimed at providing partial basic energy support to the government’s initiative of rehabilitating 103,200 Rohinga refugees. Under the study, we check the feasibility of establishing off-grid sustainable energy system. We also perform the financial analysis of the proposed energy system by considering 20 years life-span of the project. Our study shows that annual average solar insolation in Bhasan char is 4.82kWh/m2/day and daily bright sunshine hour varies from 3 hours to 11 hours. Wind flow data of Bhasan char shows the average annual wind speed of 3.74m/s which is available round the clock and throughout the year. These data justify the suitability of environment friendly off-grid solar energy system as well as wind energy system for Bhasan Char. However, considering the effective generation hours, to diversify energy sources and basing on analysis result using HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) software – we are proposing a hybrid energy system with 40% contribution from wind and rest 60% from solar. Our financial analysis of the project shows a total cost of 43.848 Crore (USD 0.525 Crore) over 20-year life span. Therefore, a BDT 2.192 Crore/year is quite economical and justifiable, considering the long-term impact that it might provide to displaced 103,200 refugees as well as the solution that we are providing to adverse negative socio-economic impact on Bangladesh from Rohinga issue.