Energy of the future- Centre for Energy Research, UIU

Abstract

The Centre for Energy Research (CER) of United International University has become one of the leading renewable energy research and consultancy centres in Bangladesh. So far it has successfully conducted about 100 renewable energy related projects.

Professor Dr. M Rezwan Khan, the immediate past vice chancellor of the university, shares his experience of establishing the energy research centre with The Daily Star. He has been involved with Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), a leading financier in the renewable energy sector in Bangladesh, since its inception. Back in 2010 -11, he visited a solar-based mini-grid project in Sandwip. Since the area was not under electricity coverage and it was too distant to be connected to the national grid, the idea of setting up a stand-alone mini-grid seemed like a possible effective solution. This mini-grid was designed by a foreign company. Dr. Khan observed that the technology used in the grid was not very complex but there was serious shortage of manpower for running and up-scaling these projects. With the idea of building human resource for the renewable energy sector the Centre for Energy Research (CER) was established in September 2010 in United International University under the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.