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Dhaka, December 2009

International RENDEV conference

The International Conference had been organized by PlaNet Finance and its partners in December, (December 7th-9th) held in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The 3-day International Conference was set up to encourage dialogue between leaders of the international arena, raise awareness and involve the public on electricity produced from renewable energy sources (RES).

The program conference was divided as follow:

December 7th: Workshop access to energy by PV technologies and microfinance mechanisms with the main practitioners and policy makers in Microfinance and energy to discuss on innovative financial mechanisms to expand ac- cess to energy by reaching poorer people.

December 8th: International conference gathering the main stakeholders: manufacturers, researchers, system integrators, energy agencies, international organizations NGOs and major Microfinance institutions.
The conference aims to propose opportunities for Sustainable Development and major Innovative Financial Mechanisms to make renewable energies affordable for the poor.

December 9th: Field visit in 2 districts (Mawna and Singair) with international practitioners and policy makers to explore the success stories of microfinance and energy, in particular Grameen Shakti and IDCOL program.

Conference Testimonies

Milko VAN GOOL, Counselor and Head of cooperation of the European Union, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh: www.delbgd.ec.europa.eu "The European Commission attrib- utes a high importance to the active dissemination of project activities and results to an audience beyond the project partners in order to achieve a leverage effect. This is why I want to take this opportunity to give special thanks to PlaNet Fi- nance and its partners for organizing this event in Dhaka."

Download the whole speech of Dr Milko VAN GOOL

Ms AMBIA - Solar Technician Entrepreneurs trained by Grameen Shakti and the 2008 International prize-winning microentrepreneur held by PlaNet Finance.

"It was like a dream for me to be at the Conference at Sheraton Hotel. Nobody from my family or my village has ever had any opportunity to attend such an International Conference before... This was my great privilege to be with many dignified persons and I could speak in front of them. When I returned my village my family especially my son and my husband and my villagers are very excited." "I have been encouraged a lot with this opportunity and it has increased my zeal to work hard with solar and other renew- able energy technologies in the coming days. More women like me should get this opportunity in my country and believe that it will increase the confidence and social status of many others."

Download the full testimony

Jon RESPATI , IRES Chairman of Solar Energy Focus Group: www.meti.or.id

"Indonesian Renewable Energy Society (METI), has been collaborating with PlaNet Finance and YBUL in 2007 through various seminar and workshops. IRES also support RENDEV programs in finding out suitable strategies that would fit the country’s social economic conditions for using Photovoltaic (PV) in rural areas. IRES, through its representative, has expressed at the conference last December in Dhaka, Bangladesh its optimism to continue to collaborate with PlaNet Finance and RENDEV in the future."

Download the full testimony

Manila, June 2009

PlaNet Finance and RENDEV participate to the launch of the Energy for All Partnership

The Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC), in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is pleased to announce the completion of, and circulate to interested parties, the Establishment Plan. The completion of this document is as a major step in the formation of the Energy for All Partnership (E4ALL).

The objective of E4ALL is to increase access to modern forms of energy by the one billion people in the Asia-Pacific region who do not currently benefit from access to clean/cleaner/more renewable energy.

Following a comprehensive design phase led by FDC throughout 2008 which included a multi-stakeholder consultation process, the Partnership’s Establishment Plan was developed. The Establishment Plan specifies an appropriate organisational structure for the E4ALL Partnership which includes a Steering Committee comprising major institutional partners, sponsors, and supporters; a series of Working Groups comprising experienced practitioners in the field who are willing to share their knowledge and expertise to encourage a cooperative approach to implementation; and a Secretariat to manage and implement the activities of the E4ALL Partnership in order to achieve its mission. E4ALL will assemble those representing multiple stakeholder groups, including donor agencies, finance and multi-lateral development institutions, non-governmental organisations and the private sector.

The Partnership had a soft launch in November 2008 at the Better Air Quality Forum in Bangkok. The first Steering Committee meeting is planned for March 2009 followed by the formal launch at the Asian Clean Energy Forum in Manila in 2009.

The objectives of the Partnership were driven by the outcomes and conclusions of two significant events which took place in the first half of 2008. First, in April 2008 at ADB Headquarters in Manila, The Philippines, FDC, ADB and GVEP International hosted the Financing Village-Level Energy for Development in Asia and the Pacific workshop, which brought together 70 experts from across the Asia-Pacific region to discuss ways of increasing financing of modern energy at the village-level. The outcomes of this workshop were subsequently presented at a follow-on meeting on expanding access to energy during the Asian Clean Energy Forum at ADB headquarters in June.

For more information please visit http://www.fdc.org.au/energy-initiative.html.

Dhaka, June 19, 2009

IRENA breaks magic number – Bangladesh becomes 100th Signatory State

Chargé d´Affaires a.i. Tarik Ahsan signed the Statute on 19 June 2009

Only five months after its founding in Bonn, IRENA welcomed its 100th Member State. Today, the Chargé d´Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of the People´s Republic of Bangladesh in Germany, Mr. Tarik Ahsan, signed IRENA´s Founding Treaty at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. The German Secretary of State, Mr. Heinrich Tiemann, was present for the signing. The Agency´s 100th Signatory State is one of the States which are mainly affected by the impacts of climate change. The catastrophes which infest Bangladesh annually prove the need for a rapid transition towards a strengthened use of renewable energy to help stem the affects of global warming. Moreover, IRENA expects to welcome more members very soon. The fast-growing number of Signatories reflects the overall agreement of industrialized and developing countries alike to realize a more sustainable development

Paris, June 4, 2009

Conference to the energy access in Africa: what are the possible solutions?

This conference was organized by ADEA (Association pour le Développement de l'Energie en Afrique), AOGREEN (African Oil Gas and Renewable Energy Network), the AEE (Association des Economistes de l'Energie) and the IFP Training (Institut Français du Pétrole) and aims to create link between North south energy actors and propose sustainable answers to increase the energy access in Africa. PlaNet Finance presented the value of microfinance models and the success stories of Bangladesh. .

Dhaka, April 2009

Field visit in Bangladesh in May, (4th and 8th) organized for the French Ministry of Sustainable development,

Deputy Director Helene Pelosse, requested PlaNet Finance to organize a field visit in Bangladesh. France is involved in the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This new agency was officially established on January 2009. Up-to-date, 78 States of France have signed the Statute of the Agency. IRENA aspires to become the main driving force for promoting a rapid transition towards the widespread and sustainable use of renewable energy on a global scale. Moreover, the Agency intends to facilitate access to all relevant information, including reliable data on the potentials for renewable energy, best practices, effective financial mechanisms, and state-of-the-art technological expertise. The field visit aims to explore the success of microfinance and energy models and analyse the possibility of replication.

http://www.irena.org./

Paris, February 12, 2009

RENDEV receives the European Union << 2009 Sustainable Energy Award >>
PlaNet finance and its partners were rewarded for their, microfinance and renewable energies project RENDEV, in the "cooperation programme" category.

The project was selected as part of the European Union 2005-2008 Renewable Energies for Europe campaign to raise decision makers' awareness and promote access to sustainable energy. The RENDEV project was picked among 250 projects in a competition rewarding local and European partnerships who had significantly contributed to the campaign goals.

PlaNet Finance has been running the RENDEV project since January 2007. This programme operating in Bangladesh and Indonesia promotes suitable microfinance models which in turn encourage rural populations to use renewable energies.

According to Jacques Attali, PlaNet Finance's Chairman, << the jury selected a project that could be perfectly adapted to other countries. More than ever, with the deep crisis the world is going through, microfinance is an essential tool for the poorest populations."

In 2009, 160 actions supporting the use of renewable energies targeting 10,000 microfinance clients will be carried out in both countries and training will be provided to the main stakeholders: decisionmaking bodies, solar panel installers and microfinance institutions.

To set up this project, PlaNet Finance joined forces with partners both at the European level, such as Transenergie, IT Power, and at the local one, with Grameen Shakti, PSL, and RahimaFrooz in Bangladesh; Optima Power Indonesia, Bina Swadaya and YBUL in Indonesia. Toyota Tsusho Corporation also supports consciousness-raising actions.

Pascale Geslain, PlaNet Finance's Head of Microfinance and Environment, concluded that << Developing the access to renewable energies through microfinance directly meets the Millennium Development Goals and contributes to the fight against climate change."

Award distribution in the category
cooperation programme
(from left to right)
PlaNet Finance : Sébastien Duquet,
Managing Director and Pascale
Geslain, Head of Microfinance and
Environment Programmes
Transenergie : Nadine Adra, Head of
department Europe & International
projects and Andris Piebalgs,
European Commissioner for Energy

Lesson learned

Conditions of success of a solar home system program
Many people think of solar home systems (SHS) only as a technology, and thus think that success is measured by the number of units installed. In fact, providing energy is really a service - a service of primary importance to the users. Success thus means making energy continuously and reliably available to the users.

Based on the lessons learned from the RENDEV project, program developers should emphasize the following:

Establishing ownership by the user
SHS are individual systems and they are installed in the house of the user. Thus their performance depends highly on the good operation and care by the user. Experience shows that users who own their systems and having contributed to paying for it are more likely to take better care of their SHS. Donated systems, which the user receives for free, fall out of use much more quickly and frequently.

Training the user
In addition to contributing financially, users have to know how to run and maintain their system. They must become familiar with it to the point that they appropriate the technology for themselves. Trainings and field demonstrations, like those provided by RENDEV, are successfully achieving this goal. Furthermore, the project should involve the communities by training them to take the new positions necessary for the project.

Ensure a continuously available service
In order for power to be made available continuously and reliably, maintenance of the entire system, including not only the SHS but also the DC devices that run on them, is crucial. Success requires maintenance to be carried out via regular visits by a technical team as well as ensuring some people in the village have basic repair skills. Finally, great care must be taken to ensure the availability of spare parts and devices at the local level so that people can buy them easily.

Operate under a sustainable pattern
Most unelectrified areas are such remote, making ensuring a continuous service (maintenance, mentoring, collection of fees) extremely costly. Finding an economic balance is challenging. On the one hand, the maintenance fee needs to be low enough so that people are able to pay it. On the other hand, costs for providing the service must be covered. In order to be able to provide good service at a low cost, economies of scale must be pursued by providing a wide range of products and services that meet the needs of the local population. Spreading the cost to the user over 2 to 5 years through a microfinance scheme may also help. In addition, complementation and leveraging of resources should be sought. For instance, to reduce maintenance costs, entrepreneurship can be promoted in order to establish a network of microentrepreneurs able to maintain the SHS at the local level while offering additional services related to electricity such as repairing TVs, radios and cellphones. Another possibility is to collect the fees through existing institutions. Many more opportunities should be explored given the local context.