WB supports Bangladesh for installing 630,000 solar home systems

The World Bank has approved 172 million U.S. dollars to support installation of an additional 630, 000 solar home systems and other renewable energy mini-grid schemes in Bangladesh, said the Washington-based lender Wednesday. It said the credit is an additional financing to the ongoing Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project ( RERED), following its success in installing solar home systems in rural areas where grid electricity is not economically feasible or hard to reach. The solar home system component of the RERED project is implemented by the Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL), a government owned financial institution, said the bank in a statement. The partner organizations, mostly non government organizations install the solar home systems, it said, adding the bank had earlier provided additional financing of 130 million U.S. dollars in the end of 2009 which helped to install more than 300,000 solar home systems.