A Study on the Prospect of Geothermal Energy in Bangladesh

Energy plays a vital role in ensuring sustainable development of a country. At present, Bangladesh is experiencing a lot of drawbacks as power demands are increasing at a rate greater than that of production. The country depends mainly on its natural gas reserve for power production, which is predicted to exhaust soon. As conventional sources of energy are finite and have negative impacts on environment, countries around the world are putting greater emphasis on harnessing electricity from renewable sources. In this context, geothermal energy can provide a viable solution for Bangladesh to ameliorate power crisis scenario and ensure a secured future. The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, world’s largest one has formed the most parts of Bangladesh, which also has a large sedimentary basin. Different studies carried out by geologists in abandoned deep wells of northwest region found suitable temperatures of more than 100°C (in the depth of 3 to 4 kilometers) for geothermal plants. This paper recapitulates the fundamental concepts of geothermal energy, observes the potential geothermal resources of Bangladesh based on previous geological studies, also considers prevailing scenario in energy sector and government policy to provide suggestion for utilizing the resources in future