Opposite: Bangladeshi women learning to assemble and install solar power systems. Main photo: Solar entrepreneur in action. Photos courtesy of the Ashden Awards.
At over 40 technology centres based in rural areas, and managed mostly by female engineers, women undergo an initial 15-day course to learn how to assemble charge controllers and mobile phone chargers, and to install and maintain solar home systems. With further training, they are able to repair the systems. Over 1,000 women technicians have come through the programme, and they have been instrumental in the rapid take-up of the solar power systems. For Barua, the success of the women technicians programme is one of his most satisfying achievements. “When we started this programme, we were not sure whether we would be able to attract enough rural women or whether they would be able to operate independently. But we trained more than 1,000
women who have developed their self-confidence and now have the opportunity to earn an income of around US$150 a month. These young women from this most conservative of societies can leave home and operate independently as technicians – this was unimaginable only a few years ago.” In 2009 Dipal Barua won the Abu Dhabi government’s Zayed Future Energy Prize in recognition of his work to bring renewable energy technologies to rural people. Part of the prize was an award of US$1.5 million, and Barua has used this money to start the Bright Green Energy Foundation. He plans to build on Grameen Shakti’s success, and wants to train 100,000 women, so that they can establish their own renewable energy
businesses. “My aim is to provide technical and financial assistance to rural women so they can become ‘green’ entrepreneurs.” Barua says the Foundation will take renewable energy technologies to the next level of development. “We envisage a future where every household and business in Bangladesh will have access to environmentally-friendly and pollution-free energy at an affordable cost.” He concludes, “If I succeed, Bangladesh will become the land of renewable energy technologies, as it is now the land of micro-credit – a source of inspiration for all. This would be a very positive demonstration of what renewable energy can do for disadvantaged people around the whole world.” G Interview by Charles Arthur, UNIDO
MakingIt 31