Farmers will get solar-powered water pumps within 5 years: PM

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has said that within the next five years, farmers will be provided with solar-powered pumps in place of diesel-run water pumps for irrigation work.

The prime minister informed parliament of this while replying to a supplementary question from Tajuddin Khan, member of parliament from Meherpur-1, during the prime minister's question-and-answer session in the Jatiya Sangsad on Wednesday.

The Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker had asked whether there was any plan to provide farmers with free solar electricity in place of diesel-run engines for irrigation.

In reply, the prime minister said the current government has a plan to gradually bring all locations where water pumps are run on diesel under solar power within the next five years.

Replying to Tajuddin Khan's star-marked question, the prime minister also outlined the government's work plan for expanding renewable energy, solar power plants and other alternative energy sources.

He said the government, considering the country's growing electricity demand, has identified renewable energy as a priority sector in order to reduce dependence on imported fuel. He said the National Renewable Energy Development Strategy Paper for 2026 to 2030 has already been formulated, under which a target has been set to achieve at least 20 percent of total power generation from renewable sources by 2030, and at least 30 percent by 2040. He said, considering the possibilities and realities, the following targets have been set for the renewable power sector in Bangladesh up to 2030.

These are 5,500 megawatts from rooftop solar power, 4,500 megawatts from ground-based solar power, and 450-550 megawatts from other technologies such as wind, waste, hydropower, floating solar and agrivoltaics.

The prime minister further said that to encourage power generation from renewable sources, the government has already granted conditional exemption from all customs duty, regulatory duty, supplementary duty, advance tax and advance income tax exceeding 2 percent applicable on essential products for setting up solar power, including solar panels, inverters, batteries and structures. He said the cost of rooftop solar power generation including battery was fixed at a maximum of Tk 8 per unit with effect from September 1.

He said as part of special incentives, a notification has been issued fixing the price of electricity at Tk 10.50 per unit, taking into account a 20 percent profit and 11.25 percent premium on production cost.

He said that, following the Net Metering Guidelines, 2025, under the notification, customers who install rooftop solar power systems by February 28 next year and supply surplus electricity to the national grid after their own consumption will receive Tk 10.50 per unit of electricity supplied to the national grid for the following three years, that is, until February 28, 2030.

Informing parliament that the government has already formulated the following policies and guidelines to expand renewable energy, the prime minister mentioned the Guidelines for Development of Renewable Energy Projects on Land Owned by Government Agencies under PPP Method, 2026, the Policy for Increasing Private Participation in Renewable Energy-based Power Generation, 2025, the Renewable Energy Policy, 2025, the Net Metering Guidelines, 2025, the National Rooftop Solar Programme, 2025, the business model for power generation from waste, the Onshore Wind Guideline, and the Guideline on Carbon Credit Processing.

Replying to a supplementary question from MP Nipun Roy Chowdhury, the prime minister said two types of batteries are used for solar power storage — one is the lead battery, which is the normal traditional type, and the other is the lithium battery, which is environment-friendly.

He said the current government is trying to encourage lithium, and that the government will extend all forms of cooperation to factories that will be set up for manufacturing lithium batteries.

Tarique Rahman said acid is used in lead batteries, which is highly harmful to the environment, and for that reason the government wants to discourage its use.

He said the government's future thinking will be to make the use of lithium batteries mandatory for rooftop installations.

The Jatiya Sangsad session began at 3:30pm under the chairmanship of Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad. According to the day's agenda, the first 30 minutes were allotted to the prime minister's question-and-answer session.

Eight star-marked questions were scheduled for the prime minister today, of which he answered three questions and seven supplementary questions.