Leaders of the IDCOL Partner Organisation Forum Trust (PO Forum), an association of the solar system suppliers, submitted a proposal in this regard to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MDMR) recently to  ensure uninterrupted power supply during emergency period of disaster by utilising the renewable energy potentials. .

“We sent the proposals to the State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief as we are emphasising the renewable energy needs to be part of sustainable and effective disaster recovery and management,'Munawar Misbah Moin, president of the IDCOL PO Form, told UNB.

Over 50 organisations have been working with the state-owned  IDCOL to implement different programmes of the MDMR for long.

PO Forum leaders said they have already installed 5.3 million solar home systems across the country of which 1.1 million were installed directly under the MDMR programmes in the last five years as part of the government target to reach electricity to all.

In addition, some 36,000 large-scale solar systems were installed at different schools, collages, religious institutions like mosques, temples, churches and also social clubs and welfare societies which help promote building digital Bangladesh to facilitate computer education, they said.     

The IDCOL partners also installed 250,000 street lights in the rural areas under the MDMR to illuminate the roads and streets in the rural areas to provide lighting facilities at the hat bazaars, and ferry-ghats.

“The capacity of all these solar power have reached about 250 MW which work as import substitute to liquid fuel like kerosene and diesel saving a huge amount of foreign currency”, said the PO Forum letter said.

Mentioning about its proposal for installing new 1 million street solar lights in rural areas across the country the PO Forum said this programme will provide uninterrupted power supply during the emergency period of any disaster and help build illuminated village programme of the government. 

About the 18,000 solar systems to community clinics and hospitals, the PO Forum said this will fulfill the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s commitment to ensure uninterrupted power supply during any emergency period of disaster.

They said installing the solar irrigation pumps will help farmers increase their agricultural production to bring a change in their destiny.

The PO Forum leaders said that they have been working in the renewable energy sector with their 20 years of experience.

The sector has employed over 10,000 people directly and 60,000 people indirectly while there  a good number of manufacturing industries were developed in the country including 22 solar battery industries, 9 solar panel industries, 74 solar charge controller industries, 83 solar LED light industries, 22 solar street light industries, 11 solar inverter industries and 9 T-solar pipe industries.