PM Tarique's Gulshan residence to go fully solar by next week

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's residence in Gulshan will soon generate its own electricity through solar panels, State Minister for Power and Energy Aninda Islam Amit announced Monday.

The announcement comes weeks after the Tarique-led BNP government unveiled a plan to encourage tens of millions of citizens to install rooftop solar panels, allowing them to sell surplus power back to energy-deficient authorities.

Amit made the announcement while unveiling the government's future energy roadmap and its key challenges at the Prime Minister's Office in the Secretariat, with Tarique Rahman chairing the session.

"The Prime Minister's residence will go fully solar by next week," Amit said, responding to several questions on the government's renewable energy plans.

The state minister said the government expects to generate at least 3,000 megawatts of power through rooftop solar installations nationwide.

The government has already announced generous tax cuts on solar panel imports, along with a rooftop solar energy buying policy, in an effort to accelerate the growth of renewable energy.

The roadmap lays out an ambitious plan to end the country's energy crisis, a problem it says was inherited from the previous Awami League government, by 2030, through a combination of new coal- and gas-fired power plants and a massive expansion of rooftop and industrial-scale solar energy.

Commerce Minister Khondaker Abdul Muktadir, PM's Finance Adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, PM's Education Adviser Mahdi Amin, along with top industry leaders and senior journalists and TV commentators, were present at the meeting.