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Bangladesh has the world s fastest growing, off-grid solar home system (SHS) coverage. The number of SHS installations has risen phenomenally from a five-year target of 50,000 in 2003 to 50,000 a month a decade later. By early 2014, installations totaled more than 3 million. Even so, this figure represents just 10 percent of the country s off-grid households, suggesting ample room for continued program expansion. Surge in Solar-Powered Homes: Experience in Off-Grid Rural Bangladesh assesses the country s remarkable growth in SHS, its support schemes, and welfare impacts for rural households. Drawing on both large-scale household survey and institutional data, the book s authors examine the effectiveness of SHS technology in improving rural people s quality of life and the program delivery and financing mechanisms, including partial subsidies, currently in place, administered by the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL). The book s findings clearly demonstrate that the welfare benefits of SHS adoption far outweigh the social cost of the subsidy. The benefits of lighting alone replacing polluting kerosene lamps with solar-powered electric lighting result in significant cost savings and income gains for adopter households. The findings confirm that SHS increases children s study time, households sense of security, and women s empowerment. Within the current market incentive structure, there is tremendous scope for broadening the rural market reach. But the high upfront cost of purchasing a SHS at current market prices is a barrier to future sales, suggesting the continued need for IDCOL s well-targeted subsidized …