Bangladesh To Receive $78.4 Million To Install 480,000 Home Solar System

An agreement was signed on Monday between Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank (WB) under which the lending agency will provide $78.4 million additional financing to further scale-up its support for the successful solar home systems (SHS) programme of Bangladesh. Additional Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), Arastoo Khan and acting head of WB Christine E Kimes signed the agreement on behalf of the at NEC II at Sher-e-Banglanagar in city.

He said building on the successful implementation of the predecessor RERED project approved in 2002, the RERED II project has so far provided clean energy access to over 414,000 households benefiting over 2 million people through installation of solar home systems in remote villages. Over 1,450 biogas plants and 40 solar irrigation pumps have already been supported under the project.

Currently, only 42 per cent of the people in rural Bangladesh have access to electricity, and reliance on the grid alone will not achieve the Government’s vision of universal access by 2021.

The credit for the additional financing to the Bangladesh Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development II (RERED II) Project is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s soft loan arm. The project will help install an additional 480,000 solar home systems that has emerged as a viable electrification option for areas without grid access to electricity.