PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Bangladesh finalizes World Bank deal aiming at 64,000 SHS

The Infrastructure Development Company (IDCOL) in Bangladesh has signed an agreement with that country's Economic Relations Division as the last step in securing funding under the World Bank's Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development project.

	© First Bangladesh Technologies Ltd.
Home improvement: A World Bank project should lead to the purchase of 50,000 SHS like this one in southern Bangladesh and another 14,000 on a fee-for-service basis by 2008.

The Oct. 2 deal, expected to lead to the purchase of 50,000 solar home systems by Oct. 2008 (see PI 5/2002, p. 34), has freed up $25.7 million, half coming from the World Bank's International Development Association and a quarter from a Global Environment Facility grant, says IDCOL CEO M. Fouzul Kabir Khan. SHS customers will provide about $3.2 million through their purchases. Participating organizations, which will run micro-financing schemes, will cover the remaining $2.9 million. Customers will be eligible for rebates, starting at $90 for each of the first 20,000 SHS, reducing to $70 for the next 20,000 and down to $50 for the last 10,000. Although Khan says a pilot project has already led to the installation of 250 systems, the procurement of components for the majority of the project will begin in November as the participating organizations set up relationships with local SHS dealers and suppliers.

In a second part of the project, the government's Rural Energy Board, which will be promoting 14,000 SHS on a fee-for-service basis through its rural electricity cooperatives, will tender bids on PV equipment. Khan did not say when the bidding would start.

For more information contact:
M. Fouzul Kabir Khan
idcol@dhaka.agni.com