Villagers selling solar power to nat’l grid

Solar-energy users of a village now can sell their excess electricity to the national grid.

This was made possible through a mechanism called PCC (Point of Common Coupling), which integrates the grid extension with the solar-home system.

The initiative was launched at Saddam Bazar of Mymensingh's Dhobaura upazila.

Twenty shopkeepers of the village have been brought under the PCC network, so that they can sell their unused renewable energy to the national grid through a mobile application.

SOLshare and Shakti Foundation jointly launched the initiative.

Earlier in 2016, SOLshare made it possible to share unused solar energy with neighbours, which got the United Nations climate change award.

According to the initiators, the grid line of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board is connected to one side of the PCC, while the local microgrid from solar systems is connected to the other side.

The project was inaugurated yesterday by advisor to the prime minister for  power, energy and mineral resources affairs Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury at an event at SOLshare's office at the capital's Bhatara area.

The villagers of Saddam Bazar virtually joined the event.

Sebastian Groh, co-founder and managing director of SOLshare, said solar-energy users are able to sell electricity to the national grid to earn additional income while paving the path to sustainability.

The project was funded by the UK government. Joining the event as special guest, acting British high commissioner Javed Patel assured to continue supporting the initiative.

Contacted, Mohammad Alauddin, former chairman of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority, told The Daily Star, "We have over 6 million solar systems at houses, with a capacity of 789 MW. We need to use those connections. SOLshare and Shakti Foundation made it technically possible to share the remaining electricity."

"It's time to study more on how it can be made economically feasible, affordable, and how it can scale up," he added.