WB to provide $78.4m for solar home prog

The government on Monday signed a loan agreement with World Bank (WB) under which the lending agency will provide $78.4 million additional financing to further scale-up its support for the successful solar home systems (SHS) program of Bangladesh. 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 WB Group’s soft loan arm. The project will help install an additional 480,000 solar home systems that has emerged as a viable electrification option for areas without grid access to electricity. Economic Relations Division (ERD) additional secretary Arastoo Khan and acting Head of WB, Bangladesh, Christine E Kimes signed the agreement on behalf of Bangladesh government and WB respectively at a simple ceremony at the ERD in the city. The IDA credit has 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and carries a service charge of 0.75 per cent. Implemented as a public-private partnership, the SHS programme is currently installing over 70,000 solar home systems every month, making it the fastest growing SHS programme in the world. In Bangladesh, 3 million systems have already been installed with support from the WB and other development partners. Currently, only 42 per cent of the people in rural Bangladesh have access to electricity. Off-grid renewable energy, like solar home system, has become the only option for electrification for millions living in the remote rural areas of Bangladesh, according to UNB.