Measurement of the carbon footprint for Bangladesh's electricity generation in 2009-15

Abstract

Bangladesh is a developing country with a severe power crisis. Like all the developing countries, power demand is increasing rapidly for the past couple of years. The energy system of Bangladesh is fossil fuel-based (98% of capacity), and fossil fuel is main responsible for high greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions referred to as the carbon footprint. During electricity generation, fossil fuel combustion produces a significant amount of greenhouse gases (GHG), and CO2 has the highest share among those. In this study, the total carbon footprint produced by electricity generation in Bangladesh is calculated based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology using fossil-fueled power plants' data for 2009–15. In 2014–15, over 23 million tons of greenhouse gasses had been emitted in Bangladesh for 43 TWh of electricity generation. The Emission factor, the amount of produced carbon emission for unit electricity generation, is computed for every existing power plant (105 power plants in 2015) as well as the national grid. The National grid emission factor is calculated as 530–570 tCO2/GWh over six years, which is too high compared to that of developed countries. Fuel-specific CO2 emission factors are calculated to know how intense the fuel is. Coal claimed the highest emission factor as 1158.28 tCO2/GWh over six years.