Arabfields, Jamel derbal, Senior Correspondent, Innovation & Sustainability, Singapore — In rural Bangladesh, sunlight is beginning to do more than warm the fields. For farmers who depend on irrigation to grow rice, solar power is emerging as a way to control energy costs while creating a new source of income.

The change is taking shape through a grid-connected solar irrigation model that allows farmers to use electricity generated by solar panels during the growing season and sell unused power to the electricity network when irrigation demand falls.

For a smallholder farmer, that second use can make a significant difference. Instead of equipment sitting idle after the main irrigation period, the solar installation can continue generating value by sending electricity back to the grid.

The initiative was completed in June 2026 after several years of implementation by the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. The project had a total cost of about $53.4 million, combining financing from the Asian Development Bank, climate funds and the Bangladeshi government.

Its scale is significant, although it fell well short of the original ambition. The programme installed 641 solar irrigation pumps across 32 rural electricity cooperatives and completed grid integration at 357 sites. The initial target had been 2,000 pumps.

That gap tells an important part of the story. Bangladesh has already achieved near-universal access to electricity, with household coverage reaching 99.5 percent in 2021. As a result, farmers were not necessarily looking for an alternative source of electricity. Subsidised grid tariffs also reduced the financial incentive to switch from conventional electricity to solar systems.

Yet agriculture remains heavily dependent on energy. During the peak season, at least 1.3 million diesel-powered engines are used to irrigate Boro rice, one of the country’s most important crops. Diesel exposes farmers to fuel-price fluctuations while also adding to agricultural emissions.

Solar irrigation offers a different economic model. During the crop season, the panels power water pumps. During periods when irrigation demand is low, excess electricity can be exported through net metering. The same infrastructure can therefore serve both the farm and the electricity network.

For farmers, the attraction is not simply environmental. More predictable operating costs can make it easier to plan production, while electricity sales can turn an irrigation asset into an additional source of revenue.

The programme also sought to make the transition more inclusive. A gender action plan included technical awareness campaigns in 10 districts and training focused on energy-related livelihoods. Women accounted for 54 percent of trainees, while more than 1,100 women were employed as billing assistants.

Those figures suggest that the impact of rural solar projects can extend beyond the technology itself. Training, employment and new technical skills can create opportunities for women in communities where energy infrastructure has traditionally been viewed as a largely technical or male-dominated field.

The project encountered serious obstacles along the way. Rising global material costs, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic disruption following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine contributed to higher project costs and delays. Contractors also faced difficulties linked to foreign exchange movements, banking regulations and access to imported equipment.

The experience eventually led to a shift away from a simple standalone solar model toward grid integration. That change improved the financial case by allowing farmers to generate income from electricity during periods when their pumps were not needed.

The results offer a possible path for future projects, but they also suggest that Bangladesh will need to be selective about where solar irrigation is deployed. In areas with reliable and heavily subsidised grid electricity, the economic case may remain weak unless farmers can benefit from electricity sales or other financial incentives.

By contrast, locations exposed to high diesel costs or unreliable power could offer stronger opportunities. Future programmes are therefore likely to focus more heavily on local demand, farm economics and the ability of distribution networks to absorb surplus solar electricity.

The 641 installations completed by 2026 provide a practical testing ground for that next stage. If the grid-connected systems demonstrate sustained financial benefits, the model could be expanded gradually rather than through another large, fixed deployment target.

Such an approach would also reduce the risk of repeating the problems that limited the original programme. Smaller phases would give authorities time to adjust financing, procurement, technical standards and coordination between electricity and agricultural agencies.

The policy framework is already in place. Bangladesh’s 2020 guidelines for integrating solar irrigation pumps into the grid provide a foundation for future expansion, while the completed installations have given the Rural Electrification Board experience in an area outside its traditional role as a rural electricity distributor.

The next challenge will be turning that experience into a commercially sustainable market. Lower upfront costs, appropriate financing and reliable rules for selling surplus electricity could determine whether farmers see solar irrigation as an investment rather than another expensive piece of equipment.

For Bangladesh’s farmers, the stakes are practical. Water must reach crops when it is needed, energy bills must remain manageable and investments have to produce a return. A solar pump that can generate electricity income outside the irrigation season offers a way to address all three concerns.

The programme’s shortfall against its original target is therefore not necessarily a failure of the technology. It is a reminder that successful clean-energy transitions depend on economics as much as engineering.

As Bangladesh looks beyond 2026, the most promising future may not be a rapid nationwide rollout of solar irrigation pumps. A more measured expansion, concentrated in locations where solar generation, agricultural demand and grid capacity complement one another, could deliver stronger results.

If those conditions are met, the country’s fields could increasingly become small energy producers as well as sources of food. For farmers, the value of the sun may ultimately be measured not only in cleaner irrigation, but in lower costs, additional income and greater control over the economics of growing a crop.