As part of the series of regional engagements in South Asia, Smart Villages organised a workshop on off-grid rural energy provision in Bangladesh. The country has the fastest growing programme in the world with an estimated 70,000 solar home systems (SHS) installed per day. More than 3 million SHS have been installed in off-grid rural areas in the country bringing electricity to an estimated 13 million people.
The aim of the workshop was to gain insights from the experience of a wide variety of stakeholders in Bangladesh who are involved in rural off-grid energy provision in the country. The workshop offered a number of potential lessons to other countries within the region, and provided an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities presented by expansion of solar home systems (SHS) and mini-grids to off-grid rural communities and the challenges faced in this expansion. During this workshop we also investigated the potential impact of energy access on rural livelihoods in the country.
The workshop was jointly organised by Smart Villages and Practical Action.
Day I – Wednesday 26 August
10:00
Welcome Speech
Hasin Jahan, Country Director, Practical Action, Bangladesh
10:10
Opening speech
Tapos Kumar Roy, Additional Secretary and Chairman, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA)
Louise Waters, energy consultant, Practical Action Consulting, UK
14:30
Breakout session – Rural electricity access provision in Bangladesh for “Transforming livelihoods”
Facilitators: Dr. Saiful Huque, Director, Institute of Energy, University of Dhaka (SHS) Uttam Kumar Saha, Head, Energy and Urban Services, Practical Action, (Mini Solar Grid)
16:00
Break
16:15
Breakout groups report back to plenary
16:45
Plenary discussion
17:15
Summary
Dr. John Holmes, Co-leader (Smart Villages), Senior Research Fellow (University of Oxford)
