Scaling Up Access to Electricity : The Case of Bangladesh
This knowledge note is the second of three case studies that concerns scaling up access to electricity in Africa, Bangladesh, and Rwanda. Since its inception in 2003, Bangladesh's solar home system program has installed about three million ele...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/06/19669152/scaling-up-access-electricity-case-bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18679 |
| Summary: | This knowledge note is the second of
three case studies that concerns scaling up access to
electricity in Africa, Bangladesh, and Rwanda. Since its
inception in 2003, Bangladesh's solar home system
program has installed about three million electrification
systems in rural households, two-thirds of them in the last
three years. The program is the most dynamic off-grid
electrification program in the world, benefitting more than
15 million people and contributing about 130 MW in renewable
energy generation capacity. The case study for Bangladesh is
interesting, because off-grid electrification is crucial to
reaching universal access. Achieving universal access to
modern energy services is one of the three complementary
objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL)
initiative. Bangladesh's rural electrification program
was initiated in 1977 with the creation of the Rural
Electrification Board (REB). Yet, it was estimated that at
the prevailing pace of grid electrification, Bangladesh was
going to take 50 years to reach universal access. By 2002,
it had become apparent that an off-grid approach was needed
to complement efforts to extend the grid. When the World
Bank's first RERED project was being designed in 2002,
a two-pronged approach was adopted to promote the use of
solar home systems in rural areas, thereby leveraging the
country's renewable energy potential, while continuing
to help the REB and rural cooperatives improve their
operational and financial performance. The program s final
design is a good example of how international experience and
local know-how can come together to yield an innovative
design that suits the country's circumstances. The
project's design was flexible (with a range of
subsidies and system sizes, for example), allowing for quick
adaptation to evolving technology and market conditions, and
to consumer feedback. |
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