World Bank Sanctions $185 Million for Bangladesh RE Project

The World Bank has announced that it has ratified $185 million credit to enhance 310 Megawatt (MW) renewable energy generation capacity in Bangladesh and mobilize private sector participation to meet the budding demand for electricity in the country.

The scaling up of renewable energy project will surge installed capacity of renewables through funneling and intensifying investments in strategic market segments, the Washington-based lender said in a announcement.

The credit facility will be used to construct the first 50 MW phase of a large scale solar panel energy park in the Feni district. It will be executed by the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh.

The project will help in improved access to cleaner electricity and air by avoiding burning of fossil fuels. It will aid cut emissions by 377,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, it further.

The $185 million credit include $26.38 million loan and $2.87 million grant from the Strategic Climate Fund of the World Bank's Climate Investment Funds.

"Bangladesh is well on its way towards becoming an upper middle-income country with about 80 per cent of the population having access to grid electricity. It also has one of the most successful off-grid renewable energy programmes in the world, providing electricity to another 10 per cent of the population," believed Dandan Chen, World Bank's Acting Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The project will help mobilize around $212 million financing from the private sector, commercial banks and other sources and institute a devoted renewable energy financing facility to deliver credit to developers of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) and large-scale renewables.