Chapter 30 - Solar energy sustainability in Bangladesh: tackling the management challenges

Abstract

Despite the recent success of increasing the electricity generation in Bangladesh, the country still faces several challenges in expanding the electricity grid network to the rural areas mainly due to the high connectivity costs, and technical as well as infrastructural bottlenecks. Solar energy is considered to be one of the most efficient, smart, and environment-friendly solutions to tackle this crisis of grid expansion and to harness renewable energies for future energy security. The use of solar energy can also be beneficial as the inclusion of solar energy in the grid can reduce the power fluctuations and thereby can contribute to a more robust and cost-effective energy systems. Even though Bangladesh has a vast potential in solar energy as the country receives average solar radiation of 4–6.5 kWh/m2, still, the share of solar energy in the electricity generation shows a gloomy picture. The share of solar energy in the total installed electricity generation capacity is only a mere 0.18%. Therefore based on primary data collected by interviewing solar energy users in four remote areas of rural Bangladesh, this chapter highlights the major impediments behind the sluggish diffusion of solar energy and develops a business model for the expansion of solar energy in rural Bangladesh which will be helpful in addressing the existing market challenges and barriers. We identified that issues like institutional collaborations, infrastructure facilities, monitoring capacity, credit access, after-sales services, quality assurance, pricing issues, and technical issues need to be adequately addressed for a sustainable renewable energy market in Bangladesh. It is expected that the findings presented in this chapter will help policy makers to introduce a suitable business model for solar energy and to implement efficient and sustainable solar energy policies for rural Bangladesh.