Bangladesh could save between $600 million and $900 million in foreign exchange annually by transitioning its one million diesel-run irrigation pumps to solar power, according to Sha?qul Alam, chief energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Speaking to a local daily, he warned that while solar adoption has crossed the 500MW mark, the nation is failing to harvest ‘low-hanging fruit’ due to structural barriers. He noted that the massive savings from solar irrigation – calculated on pre-Middle East war diesel prices – remain locked behind a lack of farmer equity and the absence of a seasonal ‘irrigation-to-grid’ business model. ‘The real barriers are not technical; they are ?nancial and structural,’ Sha?qul said, emphasizing that for eight months of the year, these systems sit idle.