UPM, together with a group of experts from its international network and its local partner Young Consultants, has been appointed by the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), a development financial institution owned by the Government of Bangladesh, to monitor its Biogas Program and propose technical and economical recommendations in order to scale up the program.

The Consulting project started recently and will involve till 2017 more than 20 seniors and junior experts from Bangladesh, Europe, Nepal and China. The consulting team is led by Prof. Heinz-Peter Mang, renowned biogas and environmental sanitation expert and highly knowledgeable in regard to the development of the biogas sector in Bangladesh. The project is financially supported by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau KfW, the German Development Bank.

Several activities have already been implemented by the team, including an inception workshop to present and discuss working plan and methodology for the two coming years, training workshops in Dhaka, in particular on technical and agricultural monitoring as well as field visits including monitoring of individual biogas plants throughout the country. Additional field visits and occasional trainings will be implemented regularly during the project period.

Most of the population in rural areas in Bangladesh still heavily relies on fuel wood, dung, and crop residues for their cooking needs. In order to prevent further environmental deterioration, the government of Bangladesh has decided to promote non-conventional energy technologies in the country, in particular through the IDCOL Biogas Program. The objective of the IDCOL Biogas Program is to introduce and disseminate domestic biogas plants with the ultimate goal to establish a sustainable and commercially viable biogas sector in Bangladesh. Under the project, a total of 100,000 domestic sized biogas plants will be constructed all over Bangladesh up to 2018.

It is very encouraging to see how much value the government of Bangladesh places on entering the right path from the start with respect to promoting renewable energy and low-carbon development. We are very proud that IDCOL has selected UPM and its partners to be part of this project and that UPM’s expertise contributes to the building of a stronger biogas sector to ease lives of rural Bangladeshis - Martin Dilger, Managing Director of UPM

For more information about IDCOL and its biogas program, please check: Infrastructure Development Company Limited

For further information on UPM Consulting Services and its expertise in biogas, please contact:

Martin Dilger, Managing Director, UPM Germany

mdilger(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +49 89 1222197-50

or

Marie Reysset, General Manager, UPM China

mreysset(at)upm-cdm.eu, T: +86 10 6468 0500-19