CNN is set to air a 30-minute program that explores Bangladesh’s preparations for sustainable economic and environmental growth. The program, titled “Growing Bangladesh”, will examine how Bangladeshi innovators are finding localised solutions to the country’s core challenges, such as flood-resistant homes and solar-powered pay-as-you-go microgrids, according to a press release of CNN International. Marina Tabassum, an award-winning Bangladeshi architect famed for her landmark designs such as Swadhinata Stambha at Suhrawardy Udyan, is featured in the CNN program. Tabassum bases the majority of her initiatives in Bangladesh, drawing on the country’s rich history, culture, and needs, with an emphasis on improving homes and lives. Read More: Marina Tabassum scoops Lisbon Lifetime Achievement Award Aiming at climate change mitigation, she is developing flatpack bamboo homes for those affected by flooding. Her work seeks to make a difference and embrace social responsibility while celebrating the heritage of Bangladesh. “Growing Bangladesh” also features Fahad Ifaz, the co-founder of iFarmer. With nearly half of the country’s population employed in agriculture and more than 70 percent of its land used for farming, Fahad and his friends founded the initiative in 2019 with the goal of transforming the agricultural sector. iFarmer seeks to increase farmers’ income and productivity by providing bundled services for finance, timely advisory services, education, modern farming technology, and access to inputs and appropriate markets. With more than 87,000 farmers registered on the platform, the company has transformed Bangladesh’s agricultural sector by facilitating the sale of nearly 190,000 tonnes of produce and facilitating more than $19 million in funding assistance for farmers throughout the country, according to the CNN press release. Read More: Sofol App from iFarmer: A Revolution Towards the Agriculture Digitization Salma Islam, head of projects, fundraising, and communications at SOLshare, a start-up hoping to kickstart the electric vehicle (EV) revolution in Bangladesh is among the “changemakers” who are featured in the program. CNN’s “Growing Bangladesh” also features Rokaiya Ahmed Purna, one of the country’s leading fashion designers who seek to revolutionise Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry by unleashing the country’s creativity. Purna’s ‘Design in Bangladesh’ platform – to be launched later this year – aims to turn the tables and conceptualize the idea of “Designed in Bangladesh” instead of “Made in Bangladesh”. Her platform will provide opportunities for Bangladeshi designers and she hopes that this will demonstrate the country’s creative prowess to the world and garner international recognition for Bangladeshi designs. Read More: Bangladeshi Marina Tabassum in Aga Khan Award for Architecture’s Steering Committee During the 30-minute show, CNN also talks to Taslima Miji, the founder of Leatherina, a manufacturer of leather products. The company is committed to making a difference in the leather industry by procuring responsibly and reducing waste and designs many of its bags in-house. The show will air at 11 am and 9 pm Bangladeshi time on April 1.

SOLshare, the initiator of the world’s first peer-to-peer energy exchange network for rural communities, in collaboration with Shakti Foundation, is set to break another glass ceiling in energy innovation. Funded by the UK Government, SOLshare and Shakti Foundation will be interconnecting one of their P2P solar microgrids - a network of interconnected solar home systems, in a rural village in Bangladesh through a single point called the Point of Common Coupling (PCC), to feed the excess solar energy into the national grid. Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, Advisor to the Prime Minister for Power, Energy & Mineral Resources Affairs inaugurated the PCC on Tuesday at SOLshare’s offices in the city. He was joined by acting British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Javed Patel as special guest. Dr Chowdhury congratulated SOLshare and Shakti Foundation for the timely innovation in the power system saying “Hopefully, today’s event will lead to the scale up of this idea so that the benefits of solar peer-to-peer microgrids would reach more customers.” He assured government support for this enterprise, according to British High Commission in Dhaka. Also read: Akij sets up rooftop solar plant with Huawei's technology Javed Patel said they are delighted to support this ground-breaking pilot programme that builds on Bangladesh’s global success in solar home systems and national grid expansion.  "It has the potential to bring benefits to many remote rural communities as well as increase the contribution of renewable energy in the national energy mix,” he said. The PCC (Point of Common Coupling) integrates Bangladesh’s two major electrification efforts- grid extension and Solar Home System dissemination. The Rural Electrification Board (REB) grid is connected to one side of the PCC, while the local microgrid from the SHS is connected to the other side. The microgrid is self-sustaining and this grid infrastructure will be used for energy balancing with the national grid, while reducing load shedding, and increasing service stability. Users of the Solar Home Systems (SHS) are able to sell electricity to the national grid to earn an additional income while paving the path to sustainability for our existing 6 million+ SHS.   This is the first step towards the formation of a smarter grid with the integration of existing distributed storage assets ultimately providing the means for the formation of a virtual power plant (VPP).  “We believe this will be a game-changer in climate change mitigation measures and will help realize the country’s aspiration of generating 40% power from clean energy sources by 2041”, said Imran Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director of Shakti foundation. “Having reached full electrification is a major achievement for Bangladesh. Today this is starting with solar home systems, tomorrow it will continue with local electric three-wheeler (B-Tesla) batteries”, commented Dr. Sebastian Groh, co-founder and managing director of SOLshare.

The UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office will provide £300,000 of financial support to Bangladesh-based Solshare, one of the 15 finalists in the inaugural Earthshot Prize competition. British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson has made the announcement. To mark the occasion, the British High Commissioner hosted a celebratory event where guests learned more about Solshare’s ground-breaking work to repair our planet, and the finalists received a personal message from HRH Prince William, who congratulated them on their fantastic achievement. Congratulating Solshare, the High Commissioner said reaching the final three in the global Earthshot competition is a huge achievement for Solshare. "I am delighted that FCDO will now provide £300,000 to a partnership between Shakti Foundation and Solshare, to help scale up their innovative model using rooftop solar home systems for peer-to-peer energy exchange networks, enabling poor households both to generate electricity from a renewable source and gain an income by selling their surplus energy to the national grid," he said. The High Commissioner said Solshare’s innovative work will help Bangladesh move towards carbon neutrality and improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of Bangladeshis. Launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in October 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history.