First World Solar Technology Summit organized by ISA and FICCI held Virtually; Inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi

On September 8, 2020, the first World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS) was held virtually which was organized by  the International Solar Alliance (ISA) along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), as the convenor of ISA Global Leadership Task Force on Innovation, to focus on new Technologies and Innovations in the field of Solar. 

• The summit was inaugurated by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. 
• Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan , Union Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister Piyush Vedprakash Goya, and Raj Kumar Singh, President of the ISA Assembly, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India also addressed the inaugural session. 
• Nobel Laureate Dr. Michael Stanley Whittingham also presented a Keynote address. He is an awardee of Nobel Prize in Chemistry (jointly with John B Goodenough & Akira Yoshino) in 2019 for the revolutionizing discovery of the lithium-ion batteries.

The summit aims at “Let us make the sun brighter” by bringing together key stakeholders – leading academic scientists, technology developers, researchers and innovators to present and discuss the recent highlights of solar technologies, cost-wise; technology-wise, technology transfers, challenges and concerns in the field.

— Agreements Inked during the Summit

The summit witnessed inking of a number of agreements by ISA, including, with International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), Global Green Growth Institute (GGI) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited. These are as follows:

ISA inks pact to become global grid nodal agency

During the summit, the ISA was given the nodal agency mandate for implementing India’s global electricity grid plan. In this regard a tripartite agreement signed between the ISA, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the World Bank (WB), the ISA will manage the bid process management. 

• The ISA being made the nodal agency for the plan is also important in order to support India’s One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) plan to counter China’s One Belt One Road initiative. 

ISA signed agreement with state-run NTPC Ltd

Another partnership agreement signed by ISA was with state-run NTPC Ltd, which will help India’s largest power generation utility to secure solar projects in 47 least developed and small island developing ISA member countries.

GGGI partnered with ISA for deploying 1mn solar irrigation pumps

The third agreement was inked between ISA and Seoul (South Korea) based Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) as a part of which ISA will provide technical assistance in deploying one million solar irrigation pumps. 

• The assistance will first be extended to African countries like Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mozambique, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Kiribati, and will be later rolled over to other ISA member nations.

ISA agreement with International Institute of Refrigeration 

ISA also signed a partnership agreement with the Paris-headquartered International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) for setting up solar heating and cooling demonstration projects in member countries.

–ISA launched its technology journal, Solar Compass 360

ISA technology journal, Solar Compass 360 was also launched during the summit by Dr Dharendra Yogi Goswami, Professor in the University of South Florida and Director of the Clean Energy Research Centre.

–ISA Journal on Solar Energy (I JOSE) launched

ISA Journal on Solar Energy (I JOSE) was launched by ISA that would help authors from across the globe to publish their articles on solar energy, during the event. The articles in this journal would be reviewed by global experts and will reach the Member countries through ISA’s network of NFPs (National Focal points) and STAR (Solar Technology and Application Resource centres) centers.

–ISA sets up Project Preparation Facility for its member countries aided by EXIM Bank of India 

As a part of providing capacity-building support to ISA members through its ITEC training programme, India also set up a Project Preparation Facility to develop bankable solar energy projects in ISA member-countries with the help of EXIM Bank of India.

— Dharmendra Pradhan announced 5 Petroleum and Gas sector PSUs to join ISA

Dharmendra Pradhan announced that five Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will join ISA’s Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (ISA-CSCA) as corporate partners viz. 

• Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)
• Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)
• Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)
• Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL)
• GAIL (India) Limited (formerly known as Gas Authority of India Ltd.) 

The above PSUs will contribute to ISA Corpus Fund.

–India gets 10 GW proposals for setting up solar equipment manufacturing capacity

India has received proposals for setting up 10 gigawatt (GW) of solar equipment manufacturing capacity from various companies.

• It should be noted that India has a domestic manufacturing capacity of only 3 GW for solar cells. Recently, Adani Green Energy Ltd that has a 1.5 GW solar PV cell and modules manufacturing capacity bagged a manufacturing-linked solar contract that entails setting up 2 GW of additional solar cell and module manufacturing capacity. 
• Also, Reliance Industries Ltd has plans for the clean energy space.
• Andhra Pradesh government is also expediting to boost India’s largest solar tender for setting up 10 GW capacity.

–India is working on clean energy mission with a collective mindset

Union Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister Piyush Vedprakash Goyal has reaffirmed that India is working on a Clean energy mission with a collective mindset.  The game-changing & transformational initiatives will help India’s smooth transit from the Fossil fuels to Renewable sources of energy.

• He envisioned that one day Power will almost become free in the world.
• He urged all to join hands together to harness the power of the SURAJ: S- Stable, U- Unconditional, R- Renewable, A- Affordable, J- Justice.

Key Points:

-India ranks fourth globally in terms of renewable energy. It has increased its installed capacity in this sector by 2.5 times and the installed solar capacity by more than 13 times.

-India has scaled its non-fossil fuel-based power generation to 134 GW, which is about 35% of the country’s total power generation.

-India has 34.6 GW of solar power, with a target to have 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022.

Participants: More than 26,000 candidates participated from 149 countries including ministers from several ISA Member Countries, High level dignitaries, Nobel laureates, Senior Government Functionaries, Heads of Global Corporations, Financial, Multilateral and leading Scientific & Research Institutions, Civil Society, Foundations, Think-Tanks and other stakeholders.

Recent Related News:

On 23rd July 2020, The Republic of Nicaragua became the 87th country to sign the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework Agreement. E. Jaime Hermida Castillo, Permanent Representative to the UN of the Republic of Nicaragua, signed the Agreement at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York.

About International Solar Alliance (ISA):

In November 2015, ISA was jointly launched by India and France during the 21st session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris, France to promote solar energy among its Member Countries. The major objective of the organization is the deployment of 1000 GW of solar capacity and mobilization of US$ 1000 billion of investment in the solar energy sector by 2030. 

Director General– Upendra Tripathy 
Headquarter– Gurugram, Haryana