Solar power pioneer wins Zayed prize

Vesela Todorova

• Last Updated: January 20. 2009 12:55PM UAE / January 20. 2009 8:55AM GMT

ABU DHABI // A Bangladeshi who helps poor villagers harvest the energy of the sun has won the first Zayed Future Energy Prize, which includes a cash award of US$1.5 million.

Dipal Barua, a founder of a non-profit enterprise called Grameen Shakti, which has enabled hundreds of thousands of rural poor to purchase solar energy systems, was presented with the award last night by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

Mr Barua said he would use the money to fund a scholarship programme for women entrepreneurs.

“It is my dream to create 100,000 green jobs in my country and the award will help me achieve this,” he told The National before accepting the prize in a ceremony at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, where the World Future Energy Summit started yesterday.

Executives at Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s green initiative, hope the award will help speed up the search for clean energy to address global warming.

On the eve of the conference, the Abu Dhabi Government pledged that at least seven per cent of the emirate’s energy capacity would come from renewable sources by 2020. The target forms an important part of the comprehensive energy policy the Government is due to unveil in the coming months.

The new target is expected to create up to US$8 billion (Dh29.3bn) of new investment in renewable energy in the emirate, according to Sultan al Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar.

The summit has brought together government officials, heads of industry, environmentalists and investors who will explore green policy making, investment and business deals. Dubbed the “Davos of renewable energy”, the three-day forum is expected to attract about 15,000 delegates.

However, last night the spotlight belonged to Mr Barua, whose company has helped transform whole villages and prevented hundreds of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere by fitting more than 200,000 homes in rural Bangladesh with solar energy systems.

The initiative, which is based on microcredit schemes pioneered by Prof Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has not only provided some of the country’s poorest residents with access to affordable, clean power but has also created thousands of jobs.

The company now employs 2,500 staff and has an annual operating budget of $100 million.

“When we started in 1996, only 15 per cent of people in Bangladesh had access to grid electricity,” said Mr Barua.

Although the current figure is double that, most Bangladeshis live without the comforts that people in the UAE take for granted.

“After sunset, you have to live on kerosene,” he said, explaining that most rural Bangladeshis now rely on the imported fuel to power lamps and cooking stoves.

Since the kerosene has to be rationed, the electricity provided by the solar panels means that families who have them can now own mobile telephones, television sets and radios, he said.

Schoolchildren can also study after dark and shopkeepers can run their businesses longer.

Mr Barua’s company makes solar energy accessible to people who could otherwise not afford it.

For each solar panel system Grameen Shakti supplies to a villager, the Bangladeshi government subsidises €36 (Dh174) of the cost, but also lends the company €230 at a low interest rate.

The company then collects small payments from the villagers, who would never be able to secure such a loan themselves, at a slightly higher rate of interest to pay for the unit and fund its operations. The villagers are charged a flat rate of six per cent interest and repay the money over three years; Grameen Shakti reinvests all the revenue back into the scheme.

The company offers villagers about 10 models to choose from. The solar panels are provided by the Japanese company Kyocera Solar, but the batteries are sourced locally and Grameen Shakti manufactures other parts itself.

The most popular model is a 50-watt system that costs $400. All the units come with free maintenance and 20-year guarantees.

Mr Barua said one reason for the scheme’s success was that the price of solar panels had gone down.

“Back when we started, we were buying panels at $7 per watt,” he said. “The price is now $3 per watt and we are even getting offers for $2.5. If the price goes down to less than $2, then we can make solar power economically viable in the cities as well.”

The parts are also assembled almost exclusively by women who have been widowed or find themselves in other difficult situations.

vtodorova@thenational.ae