The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

Grameen Shakti (GS) has won the first place under the National Energy Globe Award 2007 and was also one of the fifteen best projects out of 800 contenders from all over the world .

GS has also been selected as one of three nominees under the air category for the Energy Globe Award 2007. GS has won these recognitions because of its unique and impressive program to bring light , energy and income to energy starved rural Bangladesh through renewable energy technologies .

Dipal Barua, Managing Director, Grameen Shakti received thee awards on May 26 in the Plenary Hall of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The ceremony was participated by eminent personalities such as Hans-Gert Pottering, President European Parliament, Jose Manual Barroso, President EU Commission, Kofi Annan , former UN Secretary General and former President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Grameen Shakti, a worldwide leading rural-based renewable energy provider, has installed 160,000 solar home systems, Over 3000 biogas plants and 15000 improved cooking stoves.

The key to the company's success is an integrated model that blends soft credit with effective after-sales service and aggressive grassroots promotion that ties the technology with income generation. Through its innovative programs , Grameen Shakti is helping to meet the basic energy needs of the rural people such as light , gas for cooking and light, power for income generation . Most importantly , these programs is reducing the use of kerosene and protecting women from in-door air pollution.

Grameen Shakti has developed a market based model which is entrepreneur and community driven instead of donor driven. The company is creating local green jobs and entrepreneurs to drive its program forward . More than 1000 rural women have been trained as Solar technicians to market , install and repair, maintain solar home systems. Rural based Grameen Technology Centers run by women engineers are implementing this innovative program. Grameen Shakti has also trained more than 800 local young men and women as improved cooking stove technicians. These trained technicians are working with GS on a contract basis. In the future these young men and women will become rural energy entrepreneurs.

Grameen Shakti is also encouraging rural micro-enterprise and decentralized power generation through its biogas programme. Many large sized biogas plant owners especially poultry owners are generating electricity to run their homes and businesses, others are selling the extra gas to their neighbours.

Grameen Shakti has a vision to create one hundred thousand Green Jobs in the rural areas by 2015. Through rural entrepreneurs and green jobs, GS plans to install one million solar home systems and 5 hundred thousand biogas plants and 10 million improved cooking stoves by 2015. GS has opened 30 Grameen Technology Centers to train local women technicians and plans to open 300 by 2015. GS has also initiated Tree Plantation & Organic Fertilizer Programs.