Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The World Bank will provide Bangladesh $78.4 million additional financing to further scale-up support for the successful solar home systems (SHS) program of Bangladesh.
Under the project, 480,000 additional homes will come under the solar home systems that have emerged as a viable electrification option for areas without grid access to electricity.
To fulfill the aim, Bangladesh and World Bank on Monday signed the $78.4 million additional financing project.
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.
Implemented as a public-private partnership, the SHS program is currently installing over 70,000 solar home systems every month, making it the fastest growing SHS program in the world.
In Bangladesh 3 million systems have already been installed with support from World Bank and other development partners.
“Together, the government of Bangladesh and the World Bank is scaling up a program that delivered development results for millions of rural Bangladeshis,” said Christine E. Kimes, acting head of the World Bank Bangladesh chapter.
“This is a proven model that works. Investing in electricity in rural areas empowers both men and women, leading to increased income and growth opportunities and reducing poverty.”
Currently, only 42 percent 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.
Furthermore, the dispersed nature of rural settlements and the numerous rivers that crisscross the country make grid electrification in many areas difficult and expensive.
Off-grid renewable energy, like solar home system, has thus become the only option for electrification for millions living in the remote rural areas of Bangladesh.
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 the project.
BBN/SS-30June14-4:40pm (BST)