The country of Bangladesh has installed over 3 million new residential solar energy systems (as of May 2014), with support coming from the World Bank and other various agencies, according to recent reports.
To be exact, the recorded number was 3.1 million new systems — with more than 15 million people now benefiting from these new systems, according to coverage from the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star.
The systems were installed as part of the country’s Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (Idcol) program for off-grid areas. The total capacity of the new systems is somewhere around 135 MW.
The new systems will help the country towards the achievement of its 2021 energy target — which denotes doubling electricity generation up to 24 GW, 10% of which is set to come via renewable energy.
The state-ownedIdcol reportedly has a goal of financing six million residential solar systems by 2017. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister SheikhHasina commented, as quoted by Bangladeshi news company UNB: “We’ve set a target to provide solar energy facility to three million more families over the next three years through Idcol.”
The new capacity represents a significant addition to the country’s renewable energy capacity — which, as of August 2014, stood at 10,618 MW, as per the Bangladesh Power Development Board.
At current rates, Idcol is installing around 60,000 new residential solar systems a month.
For more information of the country’s “solar energy revolution,” I highly recommend checking out some of our previous coverage, especially: Solar Energy Revolution That Everyone’s Ignoring In Bangladesh.
While the country isn’t exactly a major global player, it’s still interesting to see the growth there. Given the country’s likely eventual fate at the hands of sea level rise and other global warming effects, it’s interesting in a different way as well though….
Image Credit: Solar for Bangladesh
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