#Sell micro grids install#

Yet this expectation comes at a time when the electric power sector has been rocked by several decades of disruption and renewal.Īs far back as the 1880s, traditional utility businesses created value by building and operating electric power plants and transmission lines to satisfy the instantaneous demand for power on a 24/7 basis. Electrifying buildings and transportation and shifts to renewable energy are expected to play a central role in lowering our collective emissions. The Author: An experienced, well traveled independent reporter and researcher with a BA geology and MBA finance, Andrew Burger reports on developments at the nexus of energy, society and the environment for Microgrid Media and several other digital media outlets.As our societies respond to the climate emergency, calls to “electrify everything” are mounting. This post has been republished with permission from MicroGrid Media. Taking things a step further, seven renewable energy-based mini-grids (combined capacity 966-kWp) are supplying electricity in remote communities in Rajshahi, Narsingdi, Kurigram and Bhola provinces.Īnother nine renewable mini-grids (combined capacity 1,071-kWp) are under construction, while construction of an additional four (combined capacity 736-kWp) are due to begin construction shortly. More than 8,000 farmers are reaping the benefits, which include lower irrigation costs, less imports and loss of foreign currency reserves, as well as lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The project had introduced and installed 321 solar irrigation pumps to date, replacing more expensive and polluting diesel-fueled irrigation pumps. Using solar to improve agriculture is another facet of the program. More than 20 million Bangladeshi’s are benefiting as a result, Sheuli Akter reports in a June 2016 article in Tuck Magazine. More than 3.9 million solar home systems have been installed in Bangladesh as a result of the government’s Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development (RERED) and RERED II Projects. Solar Electrification in Rural Bangladesh More broadly, Bangladesh has set a goal of renewables producing 15 percent of Bangladesh’s electricity by 2020. Ten percent is to be solar power generation.

#Sell micro grids install#

In addition to providing environmentally friendly home lighting and power, the program has created some 39,000 jobs, for instance, according to Energy Matters.īangladesh’s new SHS Program target is part and parcel of a larger plan to install 24,000 MW of power generation capacity nationwide by 2021. Three million solar-battery storage systems had been installed via the DCOL SHS Program as of the program’s launch, Energy Matters points out.Ĭonsisting of a PV panel, a battery and a charge controller, the PV systems installed via the DCOL SHS program are very small, averaging just 39 watts, but even that can make a huge difference in people’s lives. In 2014, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a program that aims to double the number of solar homes in the country to 6 million. That’s taking a heavy toll on the ecosystems and natural resources that underlie and support society and the economy. Seventeen million of Bangladesh’s 29 million households lack access to grid power, according to national statistics, relying on fossil fuels and traditional biomass for lighting and power. SOLBox also enables solar homeowners to sell surplus electricity to their neighbors via P2P networks, an innovation that earned ME Solshare one of 13 2016 UN Momentum for Change Awards.

ME SOLshare, for example, installs home solar PV-storage systems that incorporate SOLBox, a network device that enables homeowners to buy electricity as needed by paying for tokens via mobile phone SMS, Energy Matters reports.

Young Bangladeshi start-ups are key players in Bangladesh’s fast moving distributed renewable energy industry and market. Natural complements, their combination has led to a boom in what’s being called “swarm electrification” – development of local nanogrids and microgrids that allow solar homeownwers to sell surplus electrical power directly to other microgrid participants via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Solar in Bangladesh is taking off (Photo by Helena Wright, edited, CC BY 4.0)īangladesh has been a pioneer when it comes to both micro finance and micro solar.

Akriti Bhargava, Karla Martínez Toral and Aradhna Tandon.