Design and implementation of an energy neutral home system for rural areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is suffering from acute power crisis for a quite long time without any respite. The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) is committed to provide affordable and reliable electricity to all citizens by 2021. However, among the country’s 138 million people, only 43% has access to electricity of 176 kWh at present. The power sector includes the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity among different holdings including residential, commercial, business and service sectors under the guidance of the Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources (MPEMR). In the power sector, a number of problems have been reported. These include adverse power crisis, widespread presence of corruption in the procurement and distribution network, poor financial performances, high transmission and distribution losses. Now shortage of conventional fuel is the major problem. Most of the power stations of Bangladesh are based on non-renewable energy resources. Natural resources or nonrenewable energy sources such as: fossil fuels, oil, natural gas etc. are completely used or economically depleted. So this is the time to search such a system where the residential areas of Bangladesh become Energy Neutral. This thesis demonstrates such a system in which an Energy Neutral Home (ENH) is designed and implemented for rural areas of Bangladesh. The designed system is able to meet the energy requirement with renewable energy resources without taking any electricity from grid. In this research, biogas is used as primary renewable energy source for the generation of electricity. Besides, this thesis includes the design and cost analysis of an ENH system for an area of 200 houses with only biogas which has lower per unit cost of electricity, a hybrid ENH system with two renewable sources (biogas and solar) and its feasibility study for rural and urban areas, finally a load shedding backup ENH system with only human waste. This research proves the importance of the ENH system all over the Bangladesh by giving an excellent alternative of power generation on the present power crisis of Bangladesh.