Homegrown solar set for govt support
The government plans to accelerate Bangladesh’s transition to renewable energy by promoting domestic manufacturing of solar panels and battery storage systems, expanding access to clean energy technologies and encouraging greater public participation in the energy sector, Prime Minister’s Finance and Planning Adviser Dr Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said on Sunday.
Addressing a seminar in the capital, Dr Titumir said the government is working to build a more equitable and inclusive energy system after what he described as 16 years during which the country’s energy sector was controlled by a small group of oligarchs under a “state-sponsored political economy” during the previous “fascist government”.
Speaking at the seminar and joint press briefing titled “Distributed Renewable Energy: The Future Solar Solution for Bangladesh”, he said the government’s strategy is centred on involving citizens in energy system innovation while accelerating the adoption of distributed renewable energy technologies.
The programme was organised by the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) in collaboration with the Distributed Renewable Energy Platform (DREP).
Dr Titumir stressed that Bangladesh needs a nationwide social movement to expand the use of clean energy and identified three immediate priorities: raising public awareness about environmental protection through renewable energy, strengthening public demand for clean energy solutions, and mobilising microfinance institutions to finance small-scale solar installations in rural areas.
“If we can demonstrate the practical use of solar energy for cooking, many more people will be encouraged to adopt solar systems,” he said, adding that affordable battery storage technologies would be crucial to making renewable energy more practical for households.
He said the government is offering incentives to establish solar panel and battery manufacturing facilities within Bangladesh, a move aimed at lowering costs, strengthening domestic production capacity and making solar energy more affordable.
Reiterating that the government is “for the people and by the people”, Dr Titumir said innovation and public participation would be essential to addressing challenges across every sector of the economy.
The seminar was moderated by DREP Coordinator Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, while ERF General Secretary Abul Kashem delivered the opening remarks.
Sector specialists presented papers on key issues affecting distributed renewable energy (DRE). A.S.M. Munir, Company Secretary of the Bangladesh Sustainable and Renewable Energy Association (BSREA), outlined the challenges facing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms and industry stakeholders.
Hasan Mehedi, Chief Executive Officer of Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN), highlighted the importance of public awareness in promoting DRE technologies, while Ishtiaque Ahmeti, Director of Engineering and Innovation at SOLshare, discussed the growing role of energy storage.
Abul Azad, Manager for Just Energy Transition at ActionAid Bangladesh, examined financing constraints and priorities for expanding distributed renewable energy.
Md Mehadi Hasan Shamim, Research Associate at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), also participated as a presenter and discussant.
During the event, DREP launched a new public information website, “Renewables in Bangladesh”, designed to improve public access to information on the country’s renewable energy sector.
Hosted by The Sunrise Project, DREP is a collaborative initiative involving CPD, ActionAid Bangladesh, SOLshare, BSREA and CLEAN. The platform seeks to strengthen policies, legislation and institutional mechanisms supporting distributed renewable energy in Bangladesh.
Participants also placed a series of policy recommendations to accelerate renewable energy deployment.
For the residential sector, they called for reforms to the net metering system by simplifying eligibility requirements, introducing a unified digital application platform, expanding green financing through partial credit guarantees and pay-as-you-save models, rationalising duties on photovoltaic (PV) components, improving coordination among the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA), utilities and the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC), and upgrading legacy Solar Home Systems into hybrid grid-connected systems.
For industry, the recommendations included establishing a collateral framework for Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs), recognising Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) as bankable security to unlock operational expenditure (OPEX) financing, streamlining Bangladesh Bank’s green refinancing schemes, and strengthening commercial banks’ capacity to assess DRE projects.
To expand solar irrigation, participants proposed introducing shared ownership models for Solar Irrigation Pumps (SIPs), extending nationwide net metering to enable farmers to sell surplus electricity to the grid, gradually phasing out diesel subsidies, integrating SIP financing with agricultural equipment loans, and aligning irrigation schedules with daytime solar generation.
The seminar also recommended establishing a SREDA-led national coordination body to monitor the long-term performance and retention of distributed renewable energy technologies, institutionalising user feedback and field audits, training local technicians under performance-based service contracts, and introducing centralised real-time monitoring systems across all DRE technologies.
