Mushir Ahmed

A local company has struck a joint venture deal with an expatriate Bangladeshi to set up the country's first solar panel plant to provide a backbone for the fast-growing renewable energy sector.

Star Group, a power plant engineering company, said it has already bought land for the Aakash Solar Company and also is talking with American and Swiss companies to launch the plant later this year.

"We have readied a plan to invest more than $100 million to manufacture solar panels by 2011," Ali Akbar Khan, the managing director of the group, said.

Star said it would initially assemble photo-voltaic panels and then gradually build manufacturing facilities over the next two years to cash in on rapid growth in the solar power system in Bangladesh.

Dr. Saifur Rahman, a Bangladesh-born American citizen, and Star would hold the majority stake in the company while Swiss and American technological partners would hold the rest.

"Our plant would meet the entire local demand and can also export sizeable amount of panels to countries in the region," he said.

Khan said the plant would bring down costs of panels for the charities who have been importing solar panels at a subsidised prices from Japan.

"Tokyo has said it would cut the facility by end of 2009. But we are confident we can keep the prices lower than the subsidised prices being offered by Japan."

Experts said the venture would plug the lone gap in the country's fast growing solar energy sector.

Bangladesh is self-reliant in all the accessories in solar housing systems including batteries and wires except solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity.

The move to build the plant comes as solar power makes inroads in a vast swathe of rural areas left untouched by the national electricity grid.

The number of solar powered households have reached around 300,000, almost double in 18 months, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in Bangladesh.

Backed by soft-loan refinancing schemes by IDCOL, Grameen Shakti (GS) and other charities have lighted up homes and shops for around two million people.

The companies have also unveiled an ambitious plan to sell at least one million solar systems by 2012.

Niaz Rahim, the managing director Rahimafrooz, which sells batteries to the charities, says the plant would speed up growth of solar systems in the country.

"It's an important move and has been a necessity for powering the growth of the renewable energy," he said, referring to Star group's move.

He said Rahimafrooz is also purusing its own plan to build a photo-voltaic panel factory, as he sees Bangladesh emerging as a top solar-powered nation within years.

"Solar power systems are changing the face of rural Bangladesh. And it would be a billion dollar industry within a few years," he said.