Danish pioneering offshore wind project for Bangladesh clears first hurdle

Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has seen its plan to develop a 500MW offshore wind project off the coast of the Bay of Bengal move forward after winning an approval from the Bangladesh government to begin viability studies.

CIP, in conjunction with its project delivery arm Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP), has partnered for the proposed project with Summit Group, a Bangladesh energy company incorporated in Singapore as Summit Power International.

The three submitted a green investment proposal in July in accordance with Bangladesh's Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan (MCPP) policy framework, with future investments of $1.3bn outlined for a project to be located offshore from the Cox's Bazar region in the southeast of Bangladesh.

In a statement on its website Summit Power stated: "The country’s first 500MW utility-scale offshore wind energy project has received a nod in principle from the government to carry out a detailed feasibility study and implement the first phase of development with (site) exclusivity in next three years."

Summit Power described the offshore wind project as a "unique opportunity for the country to maximize the utilisation of its coastal resources".

"The project comes at a crucial point in time for Bangladesh as despite ambitious clean energy targets, the country remains heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports," the statement continued.

Summit Power cited an Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) analysis showing investment demand for Bangladesh's "green transition" running to $1.7bn per year and suggested that the proposed joint venture with CIP and COP "could kick-start a wave of foreign and domestic investments.

With investments in fossil fuel power plants and floating regasification terminals for liquefied natural gas, Summit is currently the largest independent power producer (IPP) in Bangladesh, accounting for 17% of the country's total private installed capacity and 10% of total installed capacity.

Pressures for change

But Dhaka has signalled its own intention to oversee the development of more renewable source of energy, spurred by the spike in oil and gas prices that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine but also by the growing difficulty in financing coal-fired plants. There are also political pressures to reduce emissions in a flood-prone country seen as particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

He said Summit Power International is also planning to install 1GW of solar and wind energy projects in India, in conjunction with battery storage.