When former US vice-president Al Gore met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, he had something to say about Bangladesh's energy programme.
"There is a plan to build a new dirty coal plant in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, the last remaining tiger preserve [in Bangladesh], thousands of people are demonstrating against it," he said. "My advice would be: don't build that dirty coal plant."
Mr Gore was referring to the Rampal power plant, one of 30 projects the Dhaka government is pursuing to address the country's chronic electricity shortage. The plant has faced stern opposition -- even drawing objections from Unesco which cited environmental concerns; yet the government hopes the plant will be operational by 2021.
Many people see a nation's development as a linear process, one that moves from industrialisation to economic growth and then into the digital age in a strict and predictable order. However, countries that were late to the industrialisation party have had to develop multiple areas simultaneously, without this apparent order.
In some countries, this simultaneous development can lead to certain areas being left behind, while others prosper.
Bangladesh is one of these countries. In a twist of history, it has taken large strides toward the modern digital age but has left its core energy supply neglected and inadequate.
Its internet infrastructure and connectivity are relatively advanced in the region with 38% of its citizens using the internet, compared with 34% in India and 17.5% in Pakistan. Internet access is also fairly cheap with a 512kBps line costing around US$30 a month and 1GB for a mobile phone costing around $5, although this is higher in rural areas.
While internet access in Bangladesh is above the regional average, it lacks the foundational energy infrastructure to continue its growth. With demand exceeding generation by over 2,000 megawatts (MW), the supply of electricity to businesses, households and consumers is woefully unreliable.
Nusrat Mehajabin, a computer science lecturer from Dhaka University, believes the country is on the verge of a digital revolution. "The main hindrance to this path is the dissonance between various infrastructure developments in the country," she said.
"The internet is considered the next big revolution after the industrial revolution which was initiated by electricity. However, even after a gap of more than a century … Bangladesh is failing to meet the internet's precondition and that is electricity."
Bangladesh installed its second submarine cable in February of this year. It's one of 300 worldwide undersea cables that constitute the internet's arteries. However, only 50% of its new bandwidth is being used, suggesting an imbalance between internet access and infrastructure.
Energy supply isn't the only problem that the internet faces. The Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum (BIGF) has identified an array of areas that need improvement. For example, government websites merely provide information rather than actual services, such as online applications for licences, so visitor numbers remain low.
Because many servers are based in the United States, most websites are in English rather than Bengali, but the majority of Bangladeshis lack an operational level of English. Furthermore, cross-border transactions require explicit authorisation from a bank and even then there is a $300 limit, severely curtailing e-commerce.
Cybercrime is also a major problem. Sonali Bank, one of the country's largest banks, has been hacked twice with irreversible losses. The BIGF has called for a cyber court and cyber police to stabilise and regulate the online environment.
Despite these major setbacks, the BIGF still believes the biggest issue facing the internet is the "unsynchronised development in different infrastructural sectors", according to its April report.
Ms Mehajabin explained that "after every disruption, servers and internet service providers (ISPs) have to reboot, which is quite stressful for [IT] systems and they might suffer permanent damage due to fluctuations in electricity levels".
Even local blackouts can affect a much larger area. If an internet user is in one location but connected to an ISP in an affected area, they will also experience the power outage.
In May of this year, more than half of the country suffered a four-hour blackout after a transmission line was overloaded in an attempt to offset the impact if wind damage to a tower. Natural calamities and extreme weather not only lead to these immediate blackouts but also necessitate routine maintenance that disrupts supply, according to the BIGF.
Poor energy supply is also having a severe impact on the economy as a whole. According to the 2013 World Bank Enterprise Survey, more than 70% of businesses suffer blackouts at least once a year. With the average blackout lasting 1.2 hours, this is more than a mere dimming of lights.
"In the last five years, Bangladesh has almost doubled its electricity generation capacity to meet increasing demand. Yet, our 2017 Doing Business Report still ranked it 187 out of 190 economies on the Getting Electricity indicator," said Qimiao Fan, the World Bank country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
Insufficient energy supply has contributed to an output loss equivalent to 3% of GDP. Yet the government is now laying the groundwork for a "Digital Bangladesh" plan that will require even more electricity. Part of the broader "Vision 2021", the plan aims to put government services online, develop IT systems for the police and multimedia systems for classrooms.
This nationwide expansion of internet services will need an ever-increasing energy supply. Consequently, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) plans to add about 11,600MW to the grid to achieve a capacity of 24,000MW by 2021.
This development is clearly necessary given the present shortages. However, it calls to mind Mr Gore's concern: shouldn't the expansion be fuelled by renewable energy?
A country's delayed development may present a problem for reconciling internet access and electricity supply, as we have seen, but it could actually provide an opportunity in the field of energy.
In the run-up to the Paris climate accord in 2015, then-President Francois Hollande of France called for developing countries to leapfrog fossil fuels and jump straight to renewables. This phenomenon is similar to what has been seen in the communication industry in Africa where, rather than first obtaining fixed telephone lines, people went straight to mobile phones.
In a report released late last year, the World Economic Forum noted that solar and wind were now either cheaper or the same price as fossil fuels in more than 30 countries. As technologies and investment expand, the price of renewables continues to fall.
Yet the Bangladeshi government is building a new "dirty" coal plant near a World Heritage site, while renewables account for only 2.9% of its electricity supply. Mr Gore described Bangladesh's energy shortage as an opportunity. He urged the prime minister to "double down on a more rapid shift towards renewables" rather than build the Rampal plant.
In an open letter response, Annisul Huq, the mayor of Dhaka, called out the "developed world" for its hypocrisy in criticising Bangladesh. He highlighted the fact that even if Bangladesh achieved its 2021 target of electricity for all, its per capita consumption would still be a tenth of the developed countries.
"The lack of exploitable hydro-resources, the high cost of development … of nuclear power means that coal is the only option for power generation in the long run," he added.
Solar power has been a huge strength for Bangladesh with its Solar Home Systems providing energy for 18 million people. But Mr Huq believes solar power has its limitations, explaining it is only suitable for households off the grid.
While the debate rages on regarding renewables, the environment and energy, Bangladesh exposes some of the difficulties and opportunities that rapid development poses, whether it be the unequal progress of different infrastructures or the problem of balancing both climate change and the energy needs of citizens.
