The ISA, which was one of the key takeaways at the Paris Climate summit in 2015, is aimed at tapping solar energy in the countries that lie partially or fully between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
INDIA WILL host the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit on March 11, which will be attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, sources told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid will be among several other leaders to attend the global summit, to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The ISA, which was one of the key takeaways at the Paris Climate summit in 2015, is aimed at tapping solar energy in the countries that lie partially or fully between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
Efforts are under way to put together 121 projects, which can be signed in two phases — about 50 on March 11 and another 71 on April 20.
The summit will be held in Delhi, almost three months after it was originally scheduled to be held in early December.
Two new programmes — on scaling solar e-mobility and storage, and on rooftop solar — are expected to be inaugurated during the summit, which will be attended by leaders from over 50 member countries.
The ISA is the first treaty-based intergovernmental organisation to be based in India that aims to help sunshine-rich developing countries to tap solar energy at more affordable prices through aggregating both demand and risks in order to bring down costs and secure investments of solar developers.
Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General of ISA, said, “We have aggregated demand of 5,00,000 solar water pumps and we are aggregating risks as well for going for a global tender. For example, Bangladesh has said they need 50,000 pumps every year and India has said it needs 1,00,000 pumps in the next three years.
Similarly, we are putting together demand from Mauritius and Uganda as well. We are mobilising 5,00,000 pumps, and with the global tender, prices will come down.
Industries are the best stakeholders that can bring this sort of change in the fields.” He was speaking at the World Sustainable Development Summit that was organised by the Energy and Resources Institute between February 15 and 17.
Calling the first programme as a win-win situation both for the farmers and the environment, Tripathy said, “In India, we have 7.5 million diesel pumps. In ISA countries, we are trying to do a census of how many diesel pumps are used. When a farmer installs a pump, he needs to erect five poles just to supply electricity to it, which cost Rs 2.5 lakh.”
Source: indianexpress
