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Five Maharashtra Villages to Usher Green Energy Thanks to Xiaomi India & United Way India Partnership
Bangladesh is now solarising its villages that fall in the middle in the islands of Brahmaputra river called ‘char.’ These are islands formed by the river using silt deposits. As such, providing grid connected access is a massive challenge to these islands.
In a key development, Standard Chartered Bank, in partnership with international social organisation, Friendship, has committed to back one such village on a river island called Ghughumari Char in Bangladesh. The plan is to provide for essential electricity supplies using off grid solar. The village is situated in Ulipur Upazila area of Kurigram district.
The solar village project is named as ‘Friendship-SCB Solar Village Project' that will be of 54 KW solar power.
The agreement was signed in a ceremony organised at the head office of Friendship in Dhaka by Friendship executive director Runa Khan and Standard Chartered Bank Chief Executive Officer Naser Ezaz
THE PROJECT
Project organisers said that the solar village project has three key components. Trees will be planted in 150 households. About 60 tube wells will be installed. The Bangladesh village will be solarised through a solar micro-gird that will offer uninterrupted power to all houses of the river island. The installation will be of 54 KW solar micro-grid providing power to more than 750 beneficiaries living in about 150 households and the project will be commissioned by 2023. The tube wells would provide the village clean drinking water.
Runa Khan, Founder and Executive Director, Friendship, said that taking electricity from the main power grid to the char in Brahmaputra River is difficult and solar energy is a choice for the settlement.
Naser Ezaz, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank, said, "By facilitating access to energy, residents across the Ghughumari Char will be given the power to explore new opportunities- children on the island will be empowered to learn with ease, new avenues of work will come into the light, and the ability to innovate will become more abundant."
Bangladesh wants to add 2.3 GW of green energy coming from solar sources as per its recently announced target at COP-26 in Glasgow.