This has brought the benefit of electric supply to families in the off-grid remote areas across the country.

Grameen Shakti (GS) has accounted for the lion's share of the system under the programme using micro-credit to make the solar home system affordable to ordinary households.

Rahimafrooz also plays a key role to the success of solar power programme as a system integrator. Rahimafrooz has supplied and installed almost 25,000 solar home systems -- the majority via Participating Organisations (POs) of IDCOL taking part in the programme. Rahimafrooz is also the main source of batteries for the 65,000 systems installed by the GS.

According to the GS sources, nearly 75 percent of Bangladeshi households and vast majority of its rural population, do not have access to main power grid and depend largely on kerosene for lighting with the exception of a small minority who can afford diesel generators.

With the rising price of kerosene, the best hope of bringing electricity to the majority lies with solar power. A typical 'solar home system' (SHS) can provide electricity to four to six low energy lights, plus a socket for TV, radio or battery recharging and a mobile (cell) phone-charging unit.

A major expansion of solar power system in the country is now underway, largely under the auspices of the World Bank-backed and IDCOL administered Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project, which provides a diminishing subsidy.

In their efforts to spread the technology and make it yet more affordable, Grameen Shakti has come up with a new and innovative way of making solar power affordable to families. This method known as micro-utility model has become very popular in rural market places because it allows a number of people to share the cost and benefit of a solar home system.

Under the system, one individual is responsible for paying the installments which he collects by renting lights to neighbours. Once the installments are paid, he becomes the owner.