Bangladesh (Commonwealth) _Summit Group of Bangladesh wishes to invest $3 billion in solar, wind, and hydroelectricity generation projects in South Asia as part of its clean energy drive and efforts to diversify its fossil fuel-based business, according to its chairman.
Summit Power International, the Singapore-based holding company for all power generation assets of Bangladesh’s Summit Group, in which Japanese utility JERA owns a 22% stake, plans to build 1,000 megawatts of solar and wind energy projects with battery storage in India, according to Summit Group Chairman Aziz Khan.
We’ve inked memorandums of understanding with several significant Indian corporations. In an interview at his office, Khan stated that this will be the cheapest form of electricity for Bangladesh, even cheaper than natural gas-based power.
Summit, which operates more than a dozen fossil-fuel-based power generation units and owns one of the country’s two floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) to handle LNG imports, also intends to build 700 megawatts of hydro power facilities in Bhutan and Nepal, according to Khan.
Khan stated that current worldwide LNG costs were still excessive, and that they were destroying demand in critical sectors in Bangladesh, affecting economic growth and causing frequent power outages. In the recent decade, LNG has been critical to Bangladesh’s economic progress. “I personally believe that gas prices will fall after this winter,” Khan predicted.
Summit Power Limited was founded on March 30, 1997 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Summit’s founding chairman is Muhammed Aziz Khan.Summit Power International, based in Singapore, owns the company.Summit Power became a public limited corporation on June 7, 2004.
Summit Communication got a Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network license from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in 2009 and established Bangladesh’s largest fiber optic cable network.
Summit Group inked a deal with the World Bank in January 2011 to finance the purchase of General Electric equipment worth US$115 million for the Bibiyana power project.
Summit Group and China Energy Group struck an agreement to collaborate in the energy sector in November 2012. Taiyo Life Insurance paid $20.3 million for 12.6 percent of the Meghnaghat power facility from Summit Group in 2013. Summit Group got a US$190 million loan from Standard Chartered Bank in July 2014 for the construction of a power plant in Narayanganj District by its subsidiary Summit Meghnaghat Power Company Limited.
Summit Group launched Summit c, a joint venture with Indian firm Infinity Infotech Parks Limited, in 2016 to build a hi-tech park in Gazipur.Summit Power was formed through the merger of Summit Purbanchol Power Company, Summit Narayanganj Power Company, and Summit Uttaranchal Power Company. Aziz Khan has been appointed as Finland’s honorary counsel general in Bangladesh.
Summit Group obtained a loan from The City Bank in April 2017 for Summit Barisal Power Limited and Summit Narayanganj Power Unit II Limited. It agreed to develop a 149MW power station in Gazipur District with the Bangladesh Power Development Board. The equipment for the Gazipur plant would be supplied by Wärtsilä. In July 2017, Summit Group appointed Faisal Khan as an additional managing director.]It was granted permission to build a liquefied natural gas terminal at Moheshkhali. The group would collaborate with Mitsubishi Corporation to invest $3 billion USD in the terminal’s construction. The National Board of Revenue granted the terminal a 15-year tax exemption.
Summit’s chairman, Aziz Khan, was Singapore’s 34th richest man in 2018. Summit Alliance Port East Gateway, a subsidiary of Summit Group, has been awarded a contract by the Inland Waterways Authority of India for three river ports in India.
Summit’s chairman, Aziz Khan, was the 42nd richest man in Singapore in 2022. Summit Group received the second largest capacity charge from the government of Bangladesh, accounting for 12.57 percent of capacity charge payments, according to The Daily Star.
