Solar energy brought to use

Grameenphone, the Telenor Group company in Bangladesh, is operating some of their base stations with local renewable energy supply, mainly solar panels. University of Oslo in Norway, proposed a partnership to Grameenphone with the objective of providing electricity from solar energy beyond the base station and into the local community, selecting Paharpur village as a pilot project location. This village went dark post sunset because it is not connected to the national power grid. With the help of the Community Power Project initiative, some 136 households are now getting electricity from 5.pm. to 12.a.m. daily.

Renewable energy for rural development

This project aims to investigate the development of a cost effective local grid infrastructure based on renewable energy for rural development. At the moment, the project involves a single village. The aim for later stages is to include more villages and also consider the implementation and operation of other renewable energy technologies. The project also includes studying the implementation and how to socially organize mini-grids to facilitate social and economic development in rural areas, with a particular emphasis on establishing models that are replicable on a large scale.

The University of Oslo is involving researchers from both natural and social sciences, and believe that cross-disciplinary research is the key to identifying the major challenges and success factors for village electrification.

Where access to electricity remains a dream to many

Life in rural Bangladesh is quite different from life in developed countries. A basic amenity like electricity is quite a dream for many. There are currently around 1.6 billion people in the world living without direct access to grid electricity of which approx. 90 million (of a total population of 140 million) live in Bangladesh. Most of the remote villages are not connected to the national power supply grid.

The pilot project, in Paharpur village, is located by the river Kusiara, Sylhet region in north eastern Bangladesh. Grameenphone has set the first milestone towards a more promising future in this area. Earlier, only the base station benefited from the solar power, but now with the expansion of the solar power installation and a 2km transmission line, local households are also connected.

A delighted beneficiary of this project, Gurucharan Sharkar, was able to install an energy saving bulb in his house. Previously his daily life went dark with the setting of the sun. But now he can carry on with a brighter life and his grand children can study even after sunset.

Benefit to the Community Information Center (CIC)

The Community Information Center (CIC) in the area has also benefits from the project. The centers gives people in rural areas access to telecommunications and gives extending connectivity to those who have no alternative access to communication technologies. The CIC in Parharpur now has its computers, scanners and internet facility running on solar power, along with a mobile charging booth. The responsibility for operations and maintenance of the energy plant was given to the one in charge of the CIC, in this case Joydev Das. Joydev gladly says that the CIC operating costs have gone down substantially since it was connected to the solar power grid. This, in turn makes it much more affordable for the villagers to use the internet and computer facilities.

Read more about the Community Information Center

A milestone is reached

Harald Birkeland, International Energy Manager of Telenor Group, ardently says: ‘We congratulate University of Oslo and Grameenphone on the completion of the first pilot project and we welcome the duplication of this concept to other off-grid regions, embracing both the energy cost savings, the technological learning as well as the environmental benefits from reduced local pollution(particles from diesel and kerosene) and reduced CO2-emissions. In addition, this renewable energy project also illustrates the local benefits in terms of wealth creation.’