Bangladesh's largest solar plant will rise on land once set aside for coal

The land was bought in 2012 for a coal-fired power plant. Now it will hold Bangladesh's biggest solar farm. The Power Development Board has proposed a 442-megawatt plant at Rampal, in Bagerhat, on the same acreage originally acquired for coal — repurposing the site, its embankments, and even the coal plant's transmission lines, so no fresh land needs acquiring. The project, estimated at Tk2,502.39 crore (about $204 million), would sell power at Tk6.18 (about $0.05) per unit. It feeds the government's target of 20% renewable electricity by 2030 — and turns a monument to one era of energy into the launchpad of the next.