PAEGC: Powering Aquaculture - Renewable Microgrids for Off-Grid Fish Hatcheries and Surrounding CommunitiesIn Bangladesh, the fisheries market is growing at about 5.6 percent a year, providing livelihoods for an estimated 12 million people, with 1.4 million

relying on it exclusively. Fish hatcheries throughout the country - nearly 1,000 in total - are typically surrounded by a dense community of 350 to 500 households. Nearly all households around the hatcheries have a small fish pond and rear fish using fingerlings from the hatchery for some time of the year. They cannot, but would like to, increase their productivity if they could cost-effectively mobilise water during the dry season.

At present, off-grid Hatcheries and nearby communities rely upon expensive, polluting diesel and kerosene consumption that threatens the food chain, the environment and human health. Diesel-run pumps used by hatcheries are only 35 percent efficient, whereas renewable energy technologies are as high as 90 percent efficient. It is a huge loss for the hatcheries and comes with an environmental cost. On the other hand, adjacent households have to rely on expensive kerosene as they don’t have access to clean energy solutions.

The Powering Aquaculture project aims to improve the nexus between access to renewable energy technologies and improved agricultural productivity for low-income households. The project is developing a solar/wind micro-grid system, a mobile network metering and facilitating an innovative joint venture business model that enables

national companies to partner with hatcheries to own and operate these micro-grids with the oversight of public sector agencies. It will enable the supply of clean energy to surrounding communities. This clean energy will simultaneously serve the needs of hatcheries for water mobilisation, households for lighting, and of surrounding small farmers for water pumping throughout the year. This system will increase demand for fish fingerlings and increase profits, strengthen local economic prospects for all parties, and enable profitable opportunities for companies in renewable energy systems in the process.

The proposed Clean Energy Solution (CES) combines the technology of solar and solar/wind micro-grids and mobile network metering with a joint venture business model between fish hatcheries and private sector companies to provide power for water pumping and lighting for off-grid fish hatcheries and small fish farmers in Bangladesh. This transformative CES is needed, as off-grid fish hatcheries and their immediate surrounding communities in Bangladesh depend extensively on diesel and kerosene for pumping water and providing lighting. The project is supporting the PAEGC objective - Agriculture production and value increases through the adoption of Innovators’ clean energy solutions.

The project is implemented by International Development Enterprises (iDE) in partnership with Renewable World—a UK-based charity tackling poverty using renewable energy. The project was selected as one of the thirteen winners of this year’s, US$13 million, ‘Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development Second Global Call for Innovations’ (PAEGC) under the USAID Global Innovation Lab.