Energy Reliability through Solar Public-Private Partnerships in India and Bangladesh for Sustainable Community Development

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Date
2019-12
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Abstract
As rapidly growing economies, India and Bangladesh’s energy needs have become stressed due to availability and reliability constraints, especially in rural regions of the country. Renewable energy is an important resource to harness; aiding in mitigating energy and health issues, particularly in a developing nation struggling with increased energy demand as well as health concerns such as air pollution and water quality from conventional electricity generation affecting community development. Distributed and Central solar power programs in are being more and more popular in India and Bangladesh to provide electricity to its citizens. This paper denotes how Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), are flexible frameworks the governments can use to empower private investment into major infrastructure, in this case for solar energy and compares examples from India and Bangladesh. With constrained funding resources, private sector funding can help fill the gap through public-private partnerships for solar capital cost, expertise and technology as well as maintenance while leveraging public sector resources such as tax incentives, land acquisition requirement and guaranteed customer base. Federal and state governments within India and Bangladesh are working and should continue to work with the private sector through Public-private partnerships to invest in solar renewable energy development, aiding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as expand the renewable energy market. The paper also notes the need to improve on legal frameworks and language, resource distribution and best practice sharing, as well as technician and implementor training for PPPs to help to ensure the balance and success for both parties. Examples are provided of PPPs in India and Bangladesh specifically for centralized and decentralized solar in different geographic locations, providing leverage for the effectiveness of PPPs as a tool to deploy solar within the two nations.
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solar, India, Bangladesh, public-private partnership
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