Grameen Shakti – Powering Bangladesh’s Rural Poor with Renewable Energy

Another division of the esteemed Grameen family, Grameen Shakti(GS) began in 1996 and is now the most successful rural renewable energy company in the world. Grameen Shakti installs about 7,000 solar home systems (SHS) per month. The collaboration of renewable technology and micro-credit enables those without electricity to cross over the ‘power line’ of social inequality. The electricity allows the residents to work longer and earn more money. Currently 90 million people (60%) of Bangladesh are without access to electricity. Nearly 2 million people enjoy a better quality of life and also use energy to generate an income because of Grameen Shakti.

Grameen Shakti uses other programs including Wind, Biogas, Organic Fertilizer, and Cooking Stoves, creating green jobs in the process, and a lot of them, how many you ask? Right now GS has trained almost 2,600 technicians and 98,000 of its customers to be SHS installers, and by 2015, GS plans to have created 100,000 women entrepreneurs from its Grameen Technology Center (GTC) program. Dr. Dipal C. Barua understands that rural women suffer the most under these circumstances, and champions for them in his programs.

Dr. Barua has been a part of the Grameen family since 1976, he is not only the Managing Director for Grameen Shakti, he is also the Deputy Managing Director of the Grameen Bank. Dr. Barua also recently recieved the Zayed Future Energy Prize from the Masdar Initiative in Abu Dhabi.

In rural Bangladesh, cooking is the biggest demand for energy. The Biogas and Impoved Cooking Stoves Programs benefit women and children the most by preventing indoor air pollution they are exposed to from kerosene lamps and wood for cooking. GS has begun to create an Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) business. These stoves are outside and would employ local youth as technicians and manufacturers.
The benefits of these renewable and sustainable innovations are not just visible in the people; they are also seen in the environment. The organic fertilizers are helping to reduce the chemicals and damaged soil from previous over use. The advantages from solar and wind are a better alternative than the deforesting resulting from wood being the previous primary energy source.