Solar can help Myanmar fill its electricity shortage and reduce the cost of power, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) argued in a recent report. The IFC (which is the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group) claimed that investing in solar projects could provide Myanmar with 700 megawatts of currently untapped power generation capacity.

“Several commercial and industrial businesses are in a good position to take advantage of the fast-growing distributed solar generation sector through private-sector led solutions and financing,” Isabel Chatterton, of the IFC’s Asia Pacific team, told the Myanmar Times.

Currently only around 60 percent of Myanmar people have access to the national power grid. The government aims for total electrification by 2030, which will require USD 2-3 billion dollars in new investments. However solar power accounts for only a small fraction of Myanmar’s planned energy mix. The report, the “Myanmar Distributed Generation Scoping Study” released this month, claims that Myanmar’s solar goals are not nearly ambitious enough.

The report continued that solar could aid Myanmar’s power goals in the long term as well as the short term. Surging demand for power caused rolling blackouts in Yangon during the previous hot season, and the government is scrambling to boost its generating capacity with emergency tenders for gas-fired power plants and imported liquid natural gas. In July, the government raised electricity tariffs, doubling or tripling power prices for most households. Solar, the IFC argued, should be part of the solution to these problems.