India – ISA

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) held its first summit in New Delhi this weekend which was attended by heads of 23 nations. The French President agreed to pledge over $860 million for solar projects in developing countries by 2022, and also applauded India’s efforts towards making ISA feasible. He also appreciated India’s achievement in solar installations and said developing nations should live by the Indian example. France had already committed over $369 million to the initiative initially.

The ISA was formed in 2015 to benefit 121 countries that lie between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. 121 countries are associated with ISA, 61 have joined the alliance and 32 have ratified the Framework Agreement. At the recent meet, 62 member nations committed that they will increase the proportion of solar power in their total energy mix to deal with climate change concerns.

The group targets to raise $1 trillion investments for creating 1,000 GW (or 1 TW) of solar power capacity by 2030. Indian Prime Minister Modi also presented a financial plan focusing on concessional and less-risky funding for solar projects to help nations gain access to affordable solar technology and raise the share of solar power in their respective country’s energy mix.

India already achieved 20 GW of solar installation mark in 207, doubling it from the prior year. But still needs $83 billion to achieve its 175 GW target by 2022. India has already contributed $62 million towards the ISA corpus fund and for the establishment of the ISA secretariat in Gurugram. The country also created 500 training slots per year for ISA member states. India also pledged to provide $1.4 billion funding to 15 other developing nations for more solar projects. Currently, the country is developing or has completed 13 solar projects worldwide. Upendra Tripathy, the director general of the alliance, said it aims scale-up solar power in many more countries.

India has distributed 28 crores LED bulbs over the last three years and has also launched the ‘Atal Jyoti Yojana’, to benefit over seven million school going children under the Solar Study Lamp Scheme. Solar tariffs have already fallen to as low as INR 2.44 per unit. Though India still has 75% of its power from coal, it is expected to fall by 50% by 2040.