The World Bank approved $172 million on Tuesday to support the ongoing rural electrification and renewable energy development (RERED) project to install an additional 630,000 solar home systems and other renewable energy mini-grid schemes in the country.
The global lender is providing the credit to the RERED project, following the project’s success in installing solar home systems in rural areas where grid electricity is not economically feasible or hard to reach.
The solar home system component of the RERED project is implemented by the Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL), a government-owned financial institution.
The credit from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary arm, has 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period; it carries a service charge of 0.75 percent.
The partner organisations, mostly non government organisations, install the solar home systems. The World Bank had earlier provided additional financing of $130 million in end 2009. More than 300,000 solar home systems have been installed since December 2009.
“More than a million homes and shops in remote areas have installed solar home systems with support from the World Bank and other development partners. Such systems are the most suitable for remote and dispersed communities which the grid connection cannot reach,” said Ellen Goldstein, country director of World Bank Bangladesh.
The solar home systems have already improved the quality of life of millions of people in Bangladesh and provided opportunities for new village enterprises, Goldstein added.
“The World Bank has been supporting the government of Bangladesh to implement a market-based off-grid electrification programme since 2002 with IDCOL as the implementing agency,” said Zubair Sadeque, team leader for RERED project of World Bank.
“Currently, with support of 30 partner organisations, 40,000 rural families install solar home system every month on average, a rate way beyond our original expectations.”
-With The Daily Star input
