The Grameen Shakti renewable energy program includes: solar energy through their Solar Home System (SHS); biogas for use as cooking fuel, electricity production and organic fertilizer; and improved cooking stoves (ICS). The model also includes a social business component that: creates employment; fosters entrepreneurship; empowers women, youth and communities; breaks the cycle of energy poverty; and contributes to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The Grameen Shakti model is expanding rapidly in Bangladesh and has begun to be replicated outside the country. Great strides in overcoming the problem of energy poverty can be achieved by expanding the replication of the Grameen Shakti model through cooperation between governments, corporations, investors, and/or social entrepreneurs. This will help to achieve the goal of universal energy access by 2030.
source "Grameen Shakti: A Renewable Energy Social Business Model for Global Replication" by Amin, Narima & Langendoen, Richard
You can watch a half hour documentary on Grameen Shakti at http://www.youtube.com/...
and read about it in the book Green Energy for a Billion Poor: How Grameen Shakti Created a Winning Model for Social Business by Nancy Wimmer
From 1996 to 2010 throughout Bangladesh, Grameen Shakti installed half a million solar energy systems ranging from 10 to 130 watts. They built 15 thousand biogas plants for single families and larger groups and established 10 thousand microutilities. They have also distributed 200,000 improved cooking stoves.
Terms of loans started out in 1996 as 50% down and 6 months of installments.
but after loans from IFC in 1998 and US AID in 2001 they do 2 and 3 year financing.
There is an arrangement for purchasing the systems for cash with a 3 year service warantee
By 2010, 46 Grameen Technology Centers manufactured half a million 12 volt fluorescent lamps, 177 thousand battery charge and discharge controllers, 34 thousand chargers and 5 thousand dc to dc converters. The batteries they use are made in Bangladesh to Shakti specifications with a 5 year warranty and an average 8 years lifetime although some last 13 years. Automobile batteries they found from experience, lasted one and a half years on average.