STORY: A visit to Bangladesh's solar fish farm
DATELINE: June 14, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:35
LOCATION: Dhaka
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of floating solar panels
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Bengali): MD MIZANUR RAHMAN, Engineer, Joules Power Limited
3. various of floating solar panels
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Bengali): ABDUL MOMIN, Administrative officer, Nawab Group
5. various of a technician monitoring the output of a floating solar panel
6. various of floating solar panels

STORYLINE:

A solar fish farm in Chapainawabganj district, some 302 km northwest of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, has been connected to the national grid.

The Joules Nawab Floating Solar Plant is a combination of fish farming and solar power generation.

It consists of numerous solar panels mounted on specially designed floating platforms in a human-made pond with an area of 22,000 square meters.

It uses floaters from Chinese renewable energy company Sungrow, solar panels from China's JA Solar, and inverters from German SMA Solar Technology.

Md Mizanur Rahman, an engineer at Joules Power Limited (JPL), is in charge of the operation and maintenance of this plant.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Bengali): MD MIZANUR RAHMAN, Engineer, Joules Power Limited
"We are the first in Bangladesh to simultaneously farm fish in ponds and generate electricity. The electricity that is generated here is used at the Nawab Atto Rice Mill, and the rest is added to the national grid.
In fact, 3,700 solar panels have been used in our solar power plant, 1,500 of which are floating, and the rest have been installed on the roof. We have a total of 15 inverters, six of which are floating.
And these devices are capable of providing long-term services. The solar panels have a warranty of 30 years. We've actually been experimenting for a long time to see if fish farming and power generation can be done at the same time."
We have been watching and talking to the owners for so long that the fish are not being harmed."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Bengali): ABDUL MOMIN, Administrative officer, Nawab Group
"We mainly do fish farming, we have about 50 small and big ponds here. Our main objective is to generate electricity along with fish farming.
We do not harm our fish farming. So far I've not seen any problem. Hopefully, nothing bad will happen in the future. So far, I've not seen anything bad, I hope for something good.
We have used Chinese products with good longevity and quality in this solar plant. The quality of the Chinese product has been ensured and we hope for the best."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Dhaka.
(XHTV)