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The number of homes and shops equipped with solar power systems in rural Bangladesh doubled in the last year to more than 870,000 with the help of funding from the World Bank and other organizations, according to a World Bank report. In 2009, the World Bank provided $130 million to support government initiatives to reach remote parts of Bangladesh that would otherwise not be connected to the national grid.

Fewer than half the people in Bangladesh have access to electricity. For Bangladesh, which already faces 2,000 megawatts of electricity shortages, finding new sources of power will become increasingly critical as population growth, industrialization, and a rise in the use of electrical appliances adds another 500 megawatts of demand annually.

In another new report, the U.S.-based advisory firm KPMG LLP predicts that India, Asia’s third-largest energy consumer, may be able to produce electricity from solar power as cheaply as from coal by 2017.

India may install three times as much solar capacity as the government intends by 2022 if sun-powered electricity is able to match the cost of conventional power, a point referred to as grid parity.

Today, solar power costs more than twice as much as the 5.42 rupees per kilowatt-hour that it costs to deliver electricity to consumers. The cost of fossil-fuel electricity may rise as much as 5.5 percent annually as India has to buy more expensive imported coal and replace aging plants, the report said. The country’s coal deficit may triple over the next five to seven years, a unit of Moody’s Investors Service had earlier predicted.

If solar power becomes competitive with other sources, India could add 39,070 megawatts of grid-connected solar projects from 2017 and 2022,says the KPMG report. That's good news given the bad news that the majority of Himalayan glaciers are indeed melting due to climate change. New data from the Indian Space Research Organization shows that 75% of the region's glaciers are retreating, on average 3.75km (2.33 miles) between 1989-2004.

If solar power is to play a big role, subsidies will be required to stay. The inevitable questions around solar will be asked over and over again, regarding costs and land requirement. But this is one source which promises not to peak in the near future! Isn't that reason enough to shift?