Solar Power Offers Light and Hope to Bangladesh Villages

At the moment, only 40 per cent of Bangladesh's nearly 150 million people have access to electricity, often only for a few hours a day.

At some places, electricity does now show up for days, making lives difficult at home and disrupting industries and farming, where irrigation pumps stand idle.

The country's power system is almost entirely dependent on fast depleting fossil-fuel, with state-owned and private sector power plants only able to generate up to 3,800 megawatts of electricity a day against a demand of 5,500 megawatts.

All of this makes solar energy systems, offered to villagers heavily subsidized by the World Bank and via an installment scheme run by the state-owned Infrastructure and Development Company Limited (IDCOL), a big relief.

Grameen Shakti, a non-profit organization linked to the Nobel Prize winning micro credit agency Grameen Bank, pioneered home solar systems and works with the World Bank and IDCOL to spread the technology throughout the impoverished country.

"Literally 80 to 85 million Bangladeshis are not getting any electricity. So we are extracting sunshine and producing green energy at the grassroots level," said Dipal Chandra Barua, managing director of Grameen Shakti.

"Right now 2.5 million people are benefiting from solar energy and we have a plan to reach 10 million people by the end of 2012," said Barua, who recently won the $1.5 million Zayed Future Energy Prize from Abu Dhabi for his contribution to renewable energy technology.

Since June, Grameen Shakti has installed more than 250,000 solar home systems, accounting for some 66 per cent of the total of solar-powered households. Barua said around 10,000 new solar home systems are being fitted every month.

In Pritomoddi, televisions and mobile phones, which not long so ago were unattainable luxuries, have become common as most villagers enjoy uninterrupted power.

Businesses are also booming.

"Now I keep my shop open hours after the sun had gone down. I get bright light from the solar system instead of the dim glow of kerosene-fired lanterns. It cut my cost, attracts customers and has pushed my business up," said tailor Akthar Hossain.

"Previously when I did not have the solar, I had to pull down shutters early, and had to be content with less than 500 taka ($7) daily. Now I earn more than 800 taka ($12) a day."

(US$1= 69 taka)

SOURCE : REUTERS

Bangladesh Launches $29 Million Fund For Green Energy

Bangladesh's central bank has launched a 2 billion taka ($29 million) refinance scheme for renewable energy in an effort to help ease power and gas crisis and reduce pollution.

A maximum 100 percent refinance facilities will be provided to the commercial banks against their lending to solar projects, bio-gas plants in rural and urban areas and effluent treatment plants for industries, said a central bank circular.

Under the new scheme, the central bank would provide loans to banks at five percent (bank rate) interest rate.

The banks will charge up to 9 percent interest on such lending to their clients. If banks channelized the fund through non-government organizations (NGOs) linkage under credit wholesaling, the rate of interest will be 10 percent.

SOURCE : REUTERS

Bangladesh Wins World Bank Solar Power Loan

The World Bank said on Saturday it will loan Bangladesh $130 million to install solar energy panels to power 300,000 households.

"The World Bank today approved a $130 million credit to Bangladesh, designed to increase access to electricity through installation of affordable solar home systems in rural areas," the statement said.

Only around 40 percent of Bangladeshis have access to electricity. Power shortages are severe, especially in rural areas.

In addition, population growth, increased industrialization, additional connections, and rise in the use of modern, electrical appliances have boosted demand for electricity, currently growing at a rate of over 500 megawatts (MW) a year.

A part of the financing will also be used to purchase and install about 10 million energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps in densely populated areas, replacing an equivalent number of incandescent lamps.

The credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary arm, has 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and it carries a service charge of 0.75 percent.

Bangladesh will also get $77 million worth of financial assistance from the German government for the economic and energy development as well for the social sector development, a senior official of the Bangladesh's finance ministry said on Saturday.

About $56 million dollars of the money is to go to the promotion of energy efficiency, good governance and health financing, he said.

The rest $21 million is to go for the legal and social empowerment of women, prison reforms, local government strengthening, rural infrastructure development and biodiversity protection.

Together with contributions to the European Union and a number of other organizations, Germany's overall support for Bangladesh now exceeds $6 billion, the official said.

SOURCE : REUTERS