this link” is the POs, or as one respondent put it, “getting good quality implementing agencies is the hardest part, especially here in Bangladesh, which is why every PO is chosen carefully through peer review and competitive bidding.” Fifteen POs, including Grameen Shakti, the BRAC Foundation, Integrated Development Foundation, and Hilful Fuzul Samaj Kallyan Sangstha, were operating in 2009 with nine more enlisted in 2010. Many of the POs are quite innovative themselves and have earned accolades for being “progressive,” “award winning,” and “internationally recognised” development intuitions. Grameen Shakti, for example, is a nonprofit company that provides finance and technical assistance for renewable energy projects to the rural population of Bangladesh. Based on experiences from the Grameen Bank’s microcredit programme, GS promotes solar home systems, small-scale biogas plants, and improved cook stoves to reduce deforestation, fight poverty, and provide energy services. Other novel factors in the approach taken from GS include a focus on matching energy supply with income generating activities, relying on local knowledge and entrepreneurship, utilising community awareness campaigns, and innovative payment methods including fertiliser, livestock, and cash.12 In 2009, GS operated 750 offices throughout every district of Bangladesh, had installed 250,000 solar home systems, 40,000
cook stoves, and 7,000 biogas plants among 2.5 million recipients, and as of November 2010, they were selling an estimated 25,000 SHS each month. Another PO, Hilful Fuzul Samaj Kallyan Sangstha, does not focus only on renewable energy projects like GS, but also address a wider range of poverty concerns, such as water supply for agriculture, post-disaster relief, and microcredit schemes. It is focused on helping “only women” and has a history of funding training sessions on microfinance as well as biogas and SHS for women entrepreneurs and technicians. Similar to GS and other POs, they offer a 3-year warranty for service as well as a 20 year warranty on panels. In 2010 they sold 4,800 SHS and repayment of loans was 100 percent, and they are targeting 16,000 units by 2011. While they do not consider other POs as rivals, they claim that by “keeping it small”, they can provide better quality of service than the bigger POs, such as GS and BRAC, that have apparently been criticised for neglecting their customers. Third, the programme focuses in improving technology. Respondents argued that “Bangladesh has no problem with fake or substandard panels or equipment because suppliers are always following specifications; every panel has a serial number and a warranty, and all SHS are checked by a technician to be fully operational before
Figure 7: Solar home systems and total installed capacity achieved under the IDCOL Program, 2004 to 2012
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