UNB, Dhaka :
The country’s solar home system (SHS), which is acclaimed as the world’s most successful single largest programme, is now in limbo due to a sharp fall in its installation rate.
According to the industry insiders, the monthly installation of SHS has now come down below 15,000 from an over 70,000, making uncertain the government plan to install 6 million systems by 2017 and achieve a target of 10 percent power generation from renewable sources by 2020. They attribute this downward trend to various reasons, including an unplanned expansion of grid-based electricity by Rural Electrification Board (REB) which is proving 300,000 electricity connections a month and free distribution of solar system through TR-Kabikha programme.
“But the most damaging part of the current crisis is that state-owned IDCOL and its private partner (PO) organisations’ has got Tk 1,500 crore stuck in the market,” said an executive of a leading
NGO which has been working in the programme since its beginning. “An amount of Tk 300 crore has got overdue in the market in the last one year,” he said preferring anonymity. He mentioned that now neither the IDCOL nor the POs are able to realise the money from SHS clients who availed themselves of the system with credit.
Recognising the fact, IDCOL’s head of renewable energy programme Enamul Karim Pavel said his organisation is going to take some initiatives to overcome the situation.
Over 50 NGOs, including Grammeen Shakti, Rural Services Foundation, Srizoni, Hilful Fazal, and Bright Green Energy are Grammeen Shakti, are involved in the IDCOL’s SHS programmes as its POs.
In implementing the programme, the IDCOL provides 70 percent of the cost while the POs spend 30 percent to install a SHS in rural houses in off-grid areas. But when the REB expanded its network to those areas, many consumers removed the solar panels from their homes and received the conventional electricity. Many of them stopped paying the monthly installment as well to the SHS providers, putting them into financial crisis.
When the financial crisis deepened, many staff of such NGOs quit their jobs sensing a bleak future.
Sources said, the free distribution of solar panels through TR-Kabikha programme made the thing worse as many received a massage that solar system is a product of free distribution.
“So, this also influenced some consumers to suspend the payment of installment against SHS as they thought these are matter of free distribution,” said another NGO executive.
In such a situation, the POs of the IDCOL sat in a meeting under their platform -POs Forum-to discuss the crisis and made some recommendations for IDCOL to take measures to resolve the crisis.
Some of the POs also blamed the IDCOL for allowing so many organisations to get involved in the SHS programme which made the solar market saturated and the POs losing concerns.
Sensing the situation, partners organisation (POs) of the IDCOL, which are mainly NGOs engaged in implementation of the programme at the field level, said the downward trend has made the government target to install 6 million SHS by 2017 uncertain.
However, IDCOL officials dismissed the allegation and shifted the blame onto REB. IDCOL official Enamul Karim Pavel said they are trying to put in place an effective mechanism to improve the situation.
After a successful installation of 3.5 million SHS across the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while celebrating, the success announced the new target of the programme.
The target was set in line with the government’s goal to increase the renewable energy-based power generation to 10 percent by 2020 from the present level of below 2 percent.
The country’s solar home system (SHS), which is acclaimed as the world’s most successful single largest programme, is now in limbo due to a sharp fall in its installation rate.
According to the industry insiders, the monthly installation of SHS has now come down below 15,000 from an over 70,000, making uncertain the government plan to install 6 million systems by 2017 and achieve a target of 10 percent power generation from renewable sources by 2020. They attribute this downward trend to various reasons, including an unplanned expansion of grid-based electricity by Rural Electrification Board (REB) which is proving 300,000 electricity connections a month and free distribution of solar system through TR-Kabikha programme.
“But the most damaging part of the current crisis is that state-owned IDCOL and its private partner (PO) organisations’ has got Tk 1,500 crore stuck in the market,” said an executive of a leading
NGO which has been working in the programme since its beginning. “An amount of Tk 300 crore has got overdue in the market in the last one year,” he said preferring anonymity. He mentioned that now neither the IDCOL nor the POs are able to realise the money from SHS clients who availed themselves of the system with credit.
Recognising the fact, IDCOL’s head of renewable energy programme Enamul Karim Pavel said his organisation is going to take some initiatives to overcome the situation.
Over 50 NGOs, including Grammeen Shakti, Rural Services Foundation, Srizoni, Hilful Fazal, and Bright Green Energy are Grammeen Shakti, are involved in the IDCOL’s SHS programmes as its POs.
In implementing the programme, the IDCOL provides 70 percent of the cost while the POs spend 30 percent to install a SHS in rural houses in off-grid areas. But when the REB expanded its network to those areas, many consumers removed the solar panels from their homes and received the conventional electricity. Many of them stopped paying the monthly installment as well to the SHS providers, putting them into financial crisis.
When the financial crisis deepened, many staff of such NGOs quit their jobs sensing a bleak future.
Sources said, the free distribution of solar panels through TR-Kabikha programme made the thing worse as many received a massage that solar system is a product of free distribution.
“So, this also influenced some consumers to suspend the payment of installment against SHS as they thought these are matter of free distribution,” said another NGO executive.
In such a situation, the POs of the IDCOL sat in a meeting under their platform -POs Forum-to discuss the crisis and made some recommendations for IDCOL to take measures to resolve the crisis.
Some of the POs also blamed the IDCOL for allowing so many organisations to get involved in the SHS programme which made the solar market saturated and the POs losing concerns.
Sensing the situation, partners organisation (POs) of the IDCOL, which are mainly NGOs engaged in implementation of the programme at the field level, said the downward trend has made the government target to install 6 million SHS by 2017 uncertain.
However, IDCOL officials dismissed the allegation and shifted the blame onto REB. IDCOL official Enamul Karim Pavel said they are trying to put in place an effective mechanism to improve the situation.
After a successful installation of 3.5 million SHS across the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while celebrating, the success announced the new target of the programme.
The target was set in line with the government’s goal to increase the renewable energy-based power generation to 10 percent by 2020 from the present level of below 2 percent.
