Road track of renewables

“Let’s look at the growth of renewables in the total energy supply in South Asian countries.”

He showed Lalima the share of renewable energy in the total energy supply of South Asian countries.

*Note: TJ is Terajoule, a unit of energy.

Data sources: IRENA Energy Profiles of each country, 2019

“So, what does this tell you?”

"As a whole, this is encouraging. Of the 8 countries, 6 have positive growth rates.”

“But don’t be deceived by the positive growth rate. While the uptake of renewables has increased overall, you must also look at the total percentage of renewables in the total energy supply. In this case, you will find that the share of renewables in the total energy supply has decreased or remained the same. Do you know why?”

“Ummm…maybe because energy demand also keeps increasing. Countries may see a positive growth rate in renewables, but if the energy demand increases at a higher rate, the share of renewables in the total energy supply will decrease.”

“Exactly! This adds to the argument for an urgent transition to renewables across all sectors because after all, as the population rises, more resources will be consumed. More resources also mean more energy consumption and an increase in the demand for fossil fuels – which are already a finite source of energy. Then, as you know, as demand goes up for a finite resource, the price also goes up leading to an increase in energy prices. For MSMEs, for whom energy touches on various aspects of their operations, an increase in the price of energy is not desirable because it means more expenses. However, if renewable energy becomes the majority of energy sources, the competition driven by more players in the market can lead to stabilized energy costs. This is just one aspect from the perspective of energy price that I talk about. There may be several other aspects too such as the drive to adopt environment-friendly technology. So, it’s a race to rapidly uptake and adopt renewables in our daily life and the same goes for MSMEs. Aside from the environmental need, MSMEs can benefit from the global drive to uptake renewables. I’ll tell you about one industry that is going green in Bangladesh but let me pour myself a glass of water first.”

The noise from the street was considerably low as the night settled.