Our goal: Sustainable energy services for future generations

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Bangladesh Solar Energy Development Forum

Improvement of Energy Access and Security in Rural Bangladesh GIZs Experiences and Plans
Erich Otto Gomm Programme Coordinator Sustainable Energy for Development Presentation 20 September 2011
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Background
Basic energy needs in rural Bangladesh
Cooking Of the about 32 million households (rural and urban) about 2.5 million cook with gas (urban), thus about 29 million households use biomass for cooking using mostly traditional stoves that are energy-inefficient and produce health-threatening indoor air pollution (IAP). In rural BGD basically all households, about 25 million cook with biomass. (Presently, country-wide the total amount of biomass used for cooking is 80-100 million tonnes per year.)
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Basic energy needs in rural Bangladesh (contd)

Lighting Of about 25 million rural households about 16 million are not connected to the power grid. One million already have solar home systems (SHS), perhaps two million will have SHS in two years time. But there are and will be about 14 million households that will continue to be off-grid and continue to use kerosene for lighting for years to come, many of them because they cannot afford the cost of SHS.

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Basic energy needs in rural Bangladesh (contd)

Energy for other productive purposes Energy is required for purposes such as irrigation, saw milling, welding, rice milling and processing, briquet making (diesel or electricity); foundries (coal); rice parboiling (rice husk). Diesel provides the appropriate energy for motive or electric power generation in many applications. Transport Transport is essential for rural economic activities. This sector is and will remain to be dominated by diesel and petrol driven vehicles. Electricity powered three-wheelers are making inroads, though. Energy is less of an issue, road conditions are.
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Areas of Intervention
Cooking What are the options to provide modern cooking energy in rural BGD? Natural gas, LPG, kerosene, electricity will not be able to contribute significantly to provision of cooking energy for years to come. Energy-efficient cook stove technologies are the main option energy-efficient stoves that save 30-50% of the fuel and have chimneys that reduce IAP. significantly. Biogas digesters also offer clean energy for cooking; the technology is proven and dissemination is ongoing.

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Areas of Intervention (contd)

Lighting What are the options to provide modern lighting energy in un-served rural BGD, i.e. replacing kerosene lamps/candles? There are household-based and community-based/mini-grid options. SHS is a household-based option but will not be accessible to the majority of rural households. Solar lanterns with sufficient light output and of good quality are an option for the majority of the 14 million kerosene using households. Field tests are under preparation. Mini-grid electricity supply (using solar, diesel, wind or biogas technologies) is an option and demonstration projects are being done.
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Areas of Intervention (contd)

Energy for other productive purposes The feasibility of replacing diesel or electricity by solar power for pumping of water for irrigation is being studied. Solar powered pumps for drinking water supply are being installed. Energy efficiency improvement measures are being pursued in selected industries, eg improved rice parboiling (saving of rice husk), intelligent motor controllers for saw mills. Transport Electricity powered three-wheelers are presently not welcome but they would be quite acceptable, if their electricity needs could be compensated by solar power plants.
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Experiences and plans for scaling up of appropriate technology dissemination

Cooking In 2005, GIZ started dissemination of an improved cook stove developed by BCSIR decades ago. The main intervention area was and is establishment of a self-sustaining supply chain for the stove (named bondu chula), including training of stove builders (more than 11.000 till today and ongoing). In 2010, GIZ and its partners tested and introduced bondu chula manufactured from concrete a major step forward as the stoves can now be mass-produced and the stove quality can be controlled at the factory level. Since early 2010 GIZ supports only concrete stoves. To date almost 400.000 stoves have been sold and dissemination is going on with the involvement of about 200 partner organisations in all parts of the country. Recently, the bondu chula programme was registered as a CDM project. Some development partners are interested in the stove initiative.
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Experiences and plans for scaling up of appropriate technology dissemination (contd)

Lighting With the ongoing SHS dissemination programme BGD is a world leader among developing countries and will continue this success story. German funds and Dutch funds channelled through GIZ contributed to financing of about 600.000 SHS. Originally, only systems with more than 30Wp were sold. In 2006, GIZ demonstrated successfully that smaller SHS with 10-30Wp have considerable market potential. Subsequently, IDCOL reduced the limit for SHS to 10Wp. At present, about 25% of the SHS sold are of the small variety (<30Wp). Given the number of households that are off-grid and cannot afford SHS but spend money on kerosene lamps, GIZ is preparing a field test for good quality solar lanterns to serve this target group. This will be followed by a roll-out of about 150.000 lanterns. The proven SHS dissemination mode (sales through hire purchase arrangements) and the existing SHS distribution network will be used.
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Experiences and plans for scaling up of appropriate technology dissemination (contd)

Mini-grid power systems for lighting (and perhaps water pumping) There are several technical options that need to be studied and tested in demonstration projects: Mini-grid solutions based on solar and/or diesel/wind/biogas energy, with DC/AC or DC/DC distribution systems, with centralised/ decentralised generation and/or storage. Some mini-grids are already established or under preparation. Recently, GIZ signed a MoU with Grameen Phone to jointly develop a pilot project. Solar water pumping for drinking water In 2010, GIZ helped set up 12 solar pumps for drinking water supply in the cyclone-prone south-west of the country where access to clean water is a problem. This initiative is being continued this year with further 60 pumps. Solar water pumping for irrigation The potential for solar water pumping is enormous but one needs to study the feasibility of the decentralised versus the centralised options. There are some experiences available.
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Summary
Energy access in rural areas means, at the basic needs level, access to energy for cooking and lighting. Appropriate technologies such as bondu chula and solar lighting systems offer decent, environmentally benign and affordable solutions. Accelerated dissemination is ongoing. With these technologies energy security levels increase as in the case of bondu chula 30-50% of the presently used fuel will be available either to meet increasing fuel demands or to be fed back into the soil as organic fertilizer. In the case of solar lighting the availability of sunshine would be the major risk factor. Mini-grid power supply (based on solar and wind/biogas energy when available) combined with improved stoves (and biogas plans when feasible) offer improved energy services to meet basic energy needs.
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