German company scores $9m solar pump order in Bangladesh
Image: Collected
German supplier Raach Solar and a Bangladeshi partner have secured two tenders worth a complete $9 million to set up 705 solar-powered irrigation pumps in the north-western Bogra district of the South Asian nation.
The program has been completed by Raach with the energy Utility Bangladesh Ltd energy unit of the Dhaka-based, plastics-to-banking Bengal Band of Industries conglomerate. The pumps will be financed by an Asian Development Bank (ADB) grant beneath the development lender’s power system efficiency improvement project.
The pumps were proposed by the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board and the contract awards ratified by the government’s cabinet committee on procurement on Thursday.
Drain
The government plans to displace 1.34 million diesel irrigation pumps which consume around $1 billion worth of imported fuel annually and also using solar to replace 365,000 electric pumps which currently draw down almost 2 GW of grid power during summer. The nation’s net-metering regime means solar-powered pumps can supply any surplus electricity generated to the grid and the national Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) recently published guidelines for the grid integration of solar irrigation pumps.
With Bangladesh already hosting 1,950 solar pumps, with a complete generation capacity of almost 47 MW, state financier the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) wants 50,000 systems by 2025, and had approved overseas development funding for 1,630 pumps up to October last year. Donor organizations have included the World Bank, German development lender KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau), the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and USAID, alongside the ADB.
SREDA chairman Mohammad Alauddin told pv magazine the reliance on overseas donors had slowed roll-out of the solar irrigation systems and added: “We are trying to develop a good business design for solar-run irrigation pumps to create it [the 50,000 ambition] feasible.”
Dipal C Barua, president of the Bangladesh Solar and Renewable Energy Association trade body told pv magazine widening usage of low-cost loans for such appliances, beyond sole subsidized credit provider IDCOL could speed adoption. “We advise to activate more such organizations in this technique,” said Barua. “A lot of the banks have a green financing window by which soft loans could be offered for entrepreneurs for [the] establishing of solar-run irrigation pumps.”
Making such cheap finance available to smaller solar pump systems could also drive faster deployment, added the top of the industry body.
Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com
Previous Story
- Bangladesh economy to bounce back: German envoy
- Germany May Encourage Automakers to Invest in Bangladesh
- Air taxi startup Lilium expands production as prototype...
- Trump’s Huawei ban also causing tech shocks in...
- ADB says Bangladesh can look up to Germany...
- Switzerland for improving investment climate in Bangladesh