BSS, Dhaka :
The cost of lighting could be depleted by 35 times through the replacement of kerosene lighting with Solar Household System (SHS), while an SHS owner can get about 3.5 times more lighting than non-owners.
Sources at Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) told BSS that Kerosene replacement with SHS not only offers people a much greater quantity of far-higher-quality lighting, it reduces the health and safety risks linked to kerosene-based lighting, particularly among women and young children.
Moreover, nearly 160 million kilos in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be avoided each year. Considering that only about 10 percent of people in off-grid areas have adopted SHS to date, whose potential for cutting carbon emissions is large.
Experts said the Solar Home Systems (SHS) will be an important contributor in achieving the government’s vision of universal access to electricity by 2021.
“The dispersed nature of rural settlements and the numerous rivers that crisscross the country make grid electrification in many areas difficult and expensive. SHS is the only viable near-to-medium term option left for millions of people living in remote areas of Bangladesh,” an energy specialist at World Bank told BSS today.
“This successful public-private partnership model is reaching electricity to millions of Bangladeshis in an affordable manner that has become an example for other developing countries to follow,” he said.
Currently, many SHS units are being installed in rural Bangladesh under the second phase of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Project supported by different development partners.
The project’s implementing agency, IDCOL, has set a target of installing an additional three million units within the next two years.
A key element of the project’s success is IDCOL’s innovative, partially subsidized SHS delivery and financing scheme.
IDCOL provides participating nongovernmental organizations, called partner organizations, direct incentives that encourage them to lower the SHS unit price to household buyers and microcredit financing, which puts SHS within the reach of families who could not otherwise afford the high upfront costs.
The cost of lighting could be depleted by 35 times through the replacement of kerosene lighting with Solar Household System (SHS), while an SHS owner can get about 3.5 times more lighting than non-owners.
Sources at Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) told BSS that Kerosene replacement with SHS not only offers people a much greater quantity of far-higher-quality lighting, it reduces the health and safety risks linked to kerosene-based lighting, particularly among women and young children.
Moreover, nearly 160 million kilos in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be avoided each year. Considering that only about 10 percent of people in off-grid areas have adopted SHS to date, whose potential for cutting carbon emissions is large.
Experts said the Solar Home Systems (SHS) will be an important contributor in achieving the government’s vision of universal access to electricity by 2021.
“The dispersed nature of rural settlements and the numerous rivers that crisscross the country make grid electrification in many areas difficult and expensive. SHS is the only viable near-to-medium term option left for millions of people living in remote areas of Bangladesh,” an energy specialist at World Bank told BSS today.
“This successful public-private partnership model is reaching electricity to millions of Bangladeshis in an affordable manner that has become an example for other developing countries to follow,” he said.
Currently, many SHS units are being installed in rural Bangladesh under the second phase of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Project supported by different development partners.
The project’s implementing agency, IDCOL, has set a target of installing an additional three million units within the next two years.
A key element of the project’s success is IDCOL’s innovative, partially subsidized SHS delivery and financing scheme.
IDCOL provides participating nongovernmental organizations, called partner organizations, direct incentives that encourage them to lower the SHS unit price to household buyers and microcredit financing, which puts SHS within the reach of families who could not otherwise afford the high upfront costs.
