India Leading In Solar Energy Sector As World Inches Towards Net Zero

With the use of renewable energy sources, India is making new strides in the field of power generation technology and leading the world particular in the solar energy sector. The fact that India is presently presiding over the International Solar Alliance (ISA) itself speaks about India's leadership position in the world in solar field.

The ISA was conceived as a joint effort by India and France to mobilise efforts against climate change through deployment of solar energy solutions. It is the first international inter-governmental organisation to be headquartered in India with 93 member and 115 signatory countries.

Energy transition need of the hour

Delivering his presidental address at the eight ISA Standing Committee meeting in New Delhi recently, Union Power Minister R.K. Singh said the need for an energy transition is now a settled question. "Rather, the question is how to achieve it, and how soon. A new global energy economy is emerging, with the rapid growth of renewables as the alternative source of energy," he added.

Underlining the crucial role of solar energy in the world's achievement of making the transition to renewable energy, Singh said, "The development of solar energy is one of the major contributors for achieving energy transition. The cumulative global solar PV capacity has reached approximately 942 GW since the last decade."

"The solar PV market maintained its record-breaking streak with new capacity installations totalling ~175 GW in 2021. With every progressing year, solar is becoming the more dominant renewable energy generation technology as the world moves towards net zero," the minister added.

He observed that this growth of solar energy is expected to get compounded as solar PV technology finds more applications in the distributed energy space. "Productive use applications of solar PV, agro PV and flexible & surface integrated solar cells continue to open new avenues for deploying solar PV technology," Singh further said.

ISA initiatives

Speaking about the contribution of the ISA initiatives, Singh stated the organisation has been striving tirelessly towards global solar energy transition and working for a greener and more sustainable world, through its programmes covering solar applications in multiple sectors like agriculture, health, transport, battery storage, heating & cooling and green hydrogen.

Some of the major ISA initiatives are:

Solar Finance Facility: Supports development of bankable solar projects, stimulate financing through financing vehicle.

SolarX Grand Challenge: Helps incubate solar startups by hand-holding them to give access to manufacturers, suppliers and investors.

Solar Technology Application Resource Centres (STAR-Cs): Function as training centres and centre of excellence for testing, development of specification and standards and to serve as information centres to support governments and private sector on solar energy projects.

One Sun One World One Grid: Aims to achieve global access to electricity.

Limited time left, need more funds

The minister pointed out that the challenge to the environment is becoming bigger by the day and the time left for humankind to address this challenge is limited. For the whole world to get to Net Zero, ISA needs to ask the green funds set up across the world to channel some of those funds to African countries. Also, the contribution to the green funds needs to go up, he added.

Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, French Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships who is the Co-President of ISA, joined the meeting virtually. He appreciated India's leadership in its G20 presidency and thanked India for its active involvement for a new global financial pact.

The ISA is a collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies as a means for bringing energy access, ensuring energy security and driving energy transition in its member countries. Its member countries are driving change by enacting policies and regulations, sharing best practices, agreeing on common standards and mobilising investments.

The ISA strives to develop and deploy cost-effective and transformational energy solutions powered by the sun to help member countries develop low-carbon growth trajectories, with particular focus on delivering impact in countries categorized as least-developed countries (LDC) and the small island developing states (SIDS).

Being a global platform, ISA's partnerships with multilateral development banks, development financial institutions, private and public sector organizations, civil society and other international institutions is key to delivering the change it seeks to see in the world going ahead.

'Towards 1000' goal

The ISA is guided by its 'Towards 1000' strategy which aims to mobilise $1,000 billion of investments in solar energy solutions by 2030, while delivering energy access to 1,000 million people using clean energy solutions and resulting in installation of 1,000 GW of solar energy capacity. This would help mitigate global solar emissions to the tune of 1,000 million tonne of CO2 every year.

The ISA was conceptualized on the sidelines of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris in 2015. With the amendment of its Framework Agreement in 2020, all member countries of the United Nations are now eligible to join the ISA.