Since 2001, 350,000 solar home systems have been installed in Bangladesh and 550,000 solar lanterns have been distributed, bringing solar power to around 4 million people.

“Right now 2.5 million people are benefitting from solar energy and we have a plan to reach 10 million people by the end of 2012,” said Dipal Chandra Barua, Managing Director of Grameen Shakti, an offshoot of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Grameen Bank which encourages the use of alternative energy.

Alternative power

In India, renewable energy makes up less than 3% of the country’s total installed capacity, with wind accounting for much of this contribution.

“It’s cheaper, healthier and it’s low maintenance”Investor interest in solar is growing, and a new solar plan for the country is to be unveiled by December, around the same time as a global climate change summit in Copenhagen.

In Gujarat, which launched its own solar mission earlier this year, mega solar parks are planned. But even here, it is microfinance that is helping power lights and stoves in rural homes and small towns, where power outages are common.

REEEP, which is developing 10 renewable energy projects with micro financing, estimates that 234 billion rupees ($49 billion) is needed to provide solar lanterns to 65 million rural homes.

This amount is less than half of the total subsidy the government provides to make kerosene affordable for the poor.Some of this money will come from MFIs, who face a much smaller risk on the small, short-term loans for solar appliances.

REEEP, along with energy research institute TERI, is spearheading the “lighting a billion lives” campaign, which seeks to replace kerosene and paraffin lanterns with