Promoting cleaner cooking technologies and productive uses of solar energy in Bangladesh

Context

Most people in Bangladesh live in rural areas and cook with traditional biomass cookstoves that burn fuel inefficiently and cause indoor air pollution. Recently, improved biomass-based cookstoves and electric cooking appliances have been gaining popularity as they have lower fuel consumption, cause less pollution and bear fewer health risks.

Although the Bangladeshi government announced in 2022 that the country had achieved an electrification rate of 100 per cent electricity coverage, the quality of electricity access remains poor for many people. To address the strain on the grid, the productive use of solar energy presents a promising area for current and future interventions by EnDev.

Objective

Bangladesh is supporting improved access to  cooking technologies and developing solar energy solutions for productive use.

Approach

EnDev aims to achieve its goals by:

• Supporting the development of the electric cooking appliance market by creating incentives for manufacturers and importers, supporting standards and guidelines for selected e-cooking appliances, and conducting awareness raising and consumer education campaigns about electric cooking in focus regions
• Boosting the promotion and sale of biomass-based improved cookstoves, training women in repair and maintenance, and promoting the sale of improved cookstoves in tribal communities as part of the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) initiative
• Demonstrating business cases for solar battery charging of e-rickschaws in peri-urban and rural areas, with the aim to facilitate replication and scale up.

Last update: August 2023