Solar Street Lamps

The ask

Install solar-LED street lamps in peri-urban and rural Bangladesh municipalities under a lighting-as-a-service contract: zero capex for the municipality, monthly fee paid from existing streetlight budget, 10-year asset ownership transferred at end of term.

Why now

Solar-LED street lamp system cost (panel + battery + luminaire + pole) has fallen below USD 180 per unit at volume — payback in 2.5–3.5 years against an electricity tariff. Bangladesh has 330+ upazilas where grid supply is unreliable or non-existent at night; LGED (Local Government Engineering Department) has a standing procurement pipeline for rural infrastructure. The lighting-as-a-service model converts a capex barrier into an operating expense, removing the upfront cost that has blocked municipal adoption.

Why Bangladesh

Bangladesh's rural roads carry significant nighttime traffic (trucks, buses, auto-rickshaws) but lack lighting — road accident mortality on unlit rural roads is disproportionately high. LGED maintains 360 000+ km of rural roads; even 1 % lit under service contracts is a 3 600 km opportunity at ৳8 000–15 000 per pole per year. The government's electricity-access push has focused on daytime supply; night-time lighting remains underserved and is a direct contract-revenue opportunity.

As a business

Revenue from 10-year service contracts priced at ৳8 000–15 000 per pole per year; cost of service (maintenance, battery replacement at year 4–5) is roughly 20–30 % of contract value. The company owns the asset during the contract period, depreciates it over 10 years, and earns the financing spread. At 10 000 poles on contract the annual recurring revenue is ৳80–150 crore; asset financing is straightforward against the contracted cashflows.

Economics

Move the sliders to model your own solar street-lamp service business. Defaults are order-of-magnitude estimates — pressure-testing them is part of what a founder pitches us.

What ZEPH would back

A founder with at least one signed LGED or municipality service contract and 6 months of payment track record. The risk here is procurement and counterparty — a Bangladeshi government body that has actually paid on time for 6 months is the de-risking event. We will fund the next 2 000-pole rollout as a project-finance structure against the contracted receivables.

Impact

Each solar street lamp deployed under a grid-connected municipality displaces an average of 120–150 kWh/year of grid electricity (coal-fired baseline), avoiding roughly 0.1 tCO₂e per pole per year; 2 000 poles avoid 200 tCO₂e annually and eliminate the associated transmission losses. Beyond carbon, the programme delivers measurable safety outcomes — WHO data links lit streets to a 40–60% reduction in pedestrian fatalities and night-time crime, creating social returns that municipalities can quantify for budget justification. As Bangladesh's 330 upazilas roll out grid extensions, solar-LED poles offer the fastest path to universal safe lighting — years ahead of the grid — while locking in a recurring-revenue model that pays back the asset in under three years.