IDCOL

Infrastructure Development Co. (IDCOL), a Bangladeshi state infrastructure investor, has secured €80 million ($81.4 million) of loans from Germany’s KfW Development Bank to help companies to install solar plants and solar irrigation pumps.

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has extended a $200 million long-term credit facility to Bangladesh to finance a range of infrastructure projects, including renewable energy expansion.

The distributed solar power generation sector has started to gain momentum in Bangladesh as industrialists show increased interest in the financial and environmental benefits.

The cheap loan package agreed at the weekend is part of a wider €340 million development deal and extends Germany’s record of promoting the energy transition of the South Asian nation.

Raach Solar and its Power Utility Bangladesh Ltd local partner have landed two contracts to supply more than 700 pumps in the north-western Bogra district, with the Asian Development Bank footing the bill.

The government has finally issued guidelines on how solar-powered irrigation system owners can be paid for exporting power back to the grid. However, for those who expect to have to use grid power to augment solar from time to time, there could be a sting in the tail.

Time is running out for the government to achieve its goal of universal access to electricity by next year but Dhaka has doubled down by allocating $26 million for PV panels in hard-to-reach areas.

The companies driving the solar home system boom in the nation, in part with the help of public money, wants Dhaka to authorize the addition of PV in 18,000 public health facilities.

Installers which took advantage of cheaply-priced government finance say customers affected by the Covid-19 crisis cannot afford to pay for the solar home systems they have rolled out while expanding renewables programs.

A scheme to install solar lighting and household power, as well as biogas and solar cookers and larger PV plants, has already driven deployment of more than 1.2 million systems. Now the government wants more partners to join the program.