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Bangladesh is blessed with abundant solar resources. Solar power is considered the most desirable energy source to mitigate the high energy demand of this densely populated country. Although various articles deal with solar energy applications in Bangladesh, no detailed review can be found in the literature. Therefore, in this study, we report on the current scenario of renewable energy in Bangladesh and the most significant potential of solar energy's contribution among multiple renewable energy resources in mitigating energy demand. One main objective of this analysis was to outline the overall view of solar energy applications in Bangladesh to date, as well as the ongoing development of such projects. The technical and theoretical solar energy potential and the technologies available to harvest solar energy were also investigated. A detailed techno-economic design of solar power applications for the garment industry was also simulated to determine the potential of solar energy for this specific scenario. Additionally, renewable energy policies applied in Bangladesh to date are discussed comprehensively, with an emphasis on various ongoing projects undertaken by the government. Moreover, we elaborate global insight into solar power applications and compare Bangladesh's current solar power scenario with that of other regions worldwide. Furthermore, the potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate solar energy enhancement is delineated comprehensively. Therefore, in this study, we determined the national scenarios of solar power implementation in Bangladesh and projected the most promising approaches for large-scale solar energy applications using artificial intelligence approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the significance of environmental aspects, the modeling of hybrid systems should be performed with the lowest cost and environmental pollution. Therefore, an effective and optimum sizing method can ensure acceptable performance. This paper implements a "technique for order performance by similarity to the ideal solution" (TOPSIS) method combined with the "analytic hierarchy process (AHP)" method to size a standalone system based on techno-economic parameters. For this reason, a survey was conducted to collect local load data on Monpura Island, located in Bhola, Bangladesh. Visible and design faults of the existing PV/diesel mini-grid have also been identified. Five alternative hybrid configurations have been considered as to evaluate the best optimum system. Two economic and one environmental criterion was used to size the system. Two experts specialized in energy systems evaluated the criteria and proposed the suitable system. Battery, wind and PV capital cost multipliers have been considered as to perform sensitivity analysis. According to techno-economic analysis and expert opinion, PV/biogas/wind has been found to be the most appropriate system among these configurations. The system has a cost of electricity (COE) of 0.691 (USD/kWh) and emits only 4.43 kg of CO2 per year. The net present cost of the proposed system is 18% lower than the existing microgrid, and the model has lower emissions due to high renewable penetration. It was also found that integrating wind can significantly reduce battery capacity in the mini-grid. The proposed system consumes 34% less batteries than the existing system. Implementing this optimum system can result in greater benefit to the local people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banana stem is being considered as the second largest waste biomass in Malaysia. Therefore, the environmental challenge of managing this huge amount of biomass as well as converting the feedstock into value-added products has spurred the demand for diversified applications to be implemented as a realistic approach. In this study, banana stem waste was experimented for bioethanol generation via hydrolysis and fermentation methods with the presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) subsequently. Along with the experimental analysis, a realistic pilot scale application of electricity generation from the bioethanol has been designed by HOMER software to demonstrate techno-economic and environmental impact. During sulfuric acid and enzymatic hydrolysis, the highest glucose yield was 5.614 and 40.61 g/L, respectively. During fermentation, the maximum and minimum glucose yield was 62.23 g/L at 12 h and 0.69 g/L at 72 h, respectively. Subsequently, 99.8% pure bioethanol was recovered by a distillation process. Plant modeling simulated operating costs 65,980 US$/y, net production cost 869347 US$ and electricity cost 0.392 US$/kWh. The CO2 emission from bioethanol was 97,161 kg/y and SO2 emission was 513 kg/y which is much lower than diesel emission. The overall bioethanol production from banana stem and application of electricity generation presented the approach economically favorable and environmentally benign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]