ARS-Bangladesh started to transform off-the-grid Howlipara village of Kaligonj upazilla under Jhenaidah district and Arkandi village of Chowgacha upazilla under Jessore district into solar villages by installing Solar Home Systems (SHSs) at homes of villagers under Joint Initiative of Bank-MFI. This program of ARS-Bangladesh has been appreciated as an innovative lead in terms of introducing green energy at green villages for household illumination, cooling, TV watching and mobile phone charging. Under this program a total of 3452 SHSs have been installed that brought changes in lives of village dwellers. ARS-Bangladesh has installed 3452 solar home systems (SHSs) with financial support of NCC Bank Limited, Trust Bank Limited, AB Bank Limited, NRB Global bank Limited, The Farmers Bank Limited and Mercantile Bank Limited in hard-to-reach areas of Jessore, Jhenaidah, Magura, Norail, Satkhira and Chuadanga districts as the piloting part of a large scale renewable energy project. This task helped the organization to have an idea about acceptance, affordability, benefit and profit of providing Solar Home Systems (SHSs) to households of project area.
ARS-Bangladesh has been selected as a Lending and Construction Participating Organization (LCPO) by IDCOL under its Biogas Program. As LCPO, ARS-Bangladesh has initially constructed 263 Biogas Plants of different sizes by 31 December 2015. ARS-Bangladesh strictly follows IDCOL Model in constructing biogas plants for ensuring increased efficiencies and longer performance. Six sizes of digester are used for plant construction. These are applicable for both types of plants fed by poultry litter or cow dung. Upon completion of the plant, ARS-Bangladesh as LCPO provides to the households two warranties (one) year warranty for all pipes, fittings and appliances and five year warranty on the structure of the plant. It also provides after construction services (ACS) to the plants for 3 years from the date of construction. Target groups of this program include all households who own at least 3 bovine (30 kg of dung per day) or keep at least 200 poultry birds (20 kg of litter per day) permanently and resides relatively in non-flooding areas. The results of the use of biogas plan encompass reduction of workloads especially of women; improvement in health and sanitation condition; increase in agriculture production with proper utilization of slurry; employment generation; saving of conventional fuel sources and reduction of green house gas emission.
ARS-Bangladesh initiated this program in Chowgacha upazilla of Jessore district under Public-Private Partnership Program (PPP) of Bangladesh Government channeled through IDCOL. Key goal of this program is to ensure timely and cost effective irrigation for agricultural farming by exploiting solar-powered irrigation technology. Under this program, ARS-Bangladesh has set up 7 (seven) solar irrigation pumps that brought 420 bighas of agricultural land under constant irrigation facility and benefitted over 245 farmers. Those pumps displaced high-priced diesel and electricity with energy generated from sunlight by PV solar panels. PV systems are used to pump water for livestock, plants or humans. Since the need for water is greatest on hot sunny days the technology is an obvious choice for this application. Pumping water using PV technology is simple, reliable, and requires almost no maintenance. For farmers with a creek running through their properties, using a solar powered water pumping solution means less fouling of waterways and far less erosion of banks. It can also lead to better pasture management as livestock will be able to access water via multiple distribution points. Solar powered water pumping systems are similar to any other pumping system, only the power source is solar energy. PV pumping systems have, as a minimum, a PV array, a motor, and a bore pump. Solar water pumping arrays are fixed mounted or sometimes placed on passive trackers (that use no motors) to increase pumping time and volume. AC and DC motors with centrifugal or displacement pumps are used. ARS-Bangladesh has been awarded with a Term Loan Facility of BDT 7,930,954 Grant of BDT 7,930,954 by IDCOL through a Partnership Agreement for installation of seven solar irrigation pumps. As per the conditions of the agreement, ARS-Bangladesh has successfully installed 2 pumps in Arkandi, 4 pumps in Sanchadanga and 1 pump in Sworupdha villages located in Chowgacha upazilla under Jessore district. As prescribed equipment suppliers, Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Limited (RREL) has supplied equipments for 5 pumps and Electro Solar Power Limited (ESPL) has supplied equipments for 2 pumps.