January 18, 2018
India has one of the fastest growing renewable energy programmes in the World and aims to achieve 175 GW target of installed renewable capacity well before 2020
ISA’s major objectives include global deployment of over 1,000 GW of solar capacity and mobilisation of investment of more than US$1 trillion into solar energy by 2030
Letters of intent/ memorandums of understanding related to 10 solar projects were exchanged at the ISA meet. By April 2018, over 100 projects are expected to be signed
The ISA event comes ahead of the 2nd RE-INVEST meet to be held in Greater Noida in partnership with the India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy during April 19-21
India will set up a US$350 million fund to finance renewable energy projects, Raj Kumar Singh, junior minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Government of India, said at an invent in Abu Dhabi. Mr Singh was delivering the keynote address at the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Forum during the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2018. India is a key member of the ISA, a global intergovernmental organisation that is trying to move the world’s major energy consumption to sustainable resources. On receipt of 15 ratifications, the ISA framework agreement entered into force on December 6th 2017, thereby making ISA a de jure treaty based body. So far 19 countries have ratified and 48 countries have signed the ISA agreement.
On the first day of the two-day ISA Forum, January 17th, a ministerial plenary of ISA Energy Ministers was held. They ministers presented their views on benefits of collaboration, synergies, and knowledge sharing at the international level to scale up solar energy for universal access. The attendees also discussed investments into innovations, technology and research and development for solar projects. Delivering the keynote, Mr Singh stated that over the years renewable energy has become cheaper and is set to replace conventional energy. He added that India has one of the fastest growing renewable energy programmes in the world and the country would achieve its target of 175 GW of installed renewable capacity well before 2020.
India hopes that ISA will help mobilise sufficient funds for solar energy projects. While opening the ministerial session, Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General of ISA informed about exchange of letters of intent/ memorandums of understanding related to as many as 10 solar projects. The projects involve various companies and banking institutions such as Tata Power. By April 2018, more than 100 projects are expected to be signed under the ISA umbrella. The ISA event comes ahead of the 2nd RE-INVEST meet to be held with the India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy during April 19-21. Through these initiatives, India is looking to engage a broader panel of stakeholders when it comes to renewable energy developments.
At the end of the ISA ministerial session, India’s YES Bank committed solar financing solar worth over US$5 billion. Power developers, CLP Group and NTPC Ltd, have also announced a partnership deal with ISA, while announcing voluntary contribution of US$1 million each to the ISA fund corpus. Additionally, the International Energy Agency and GCF have announced entering into partnership with ISA. The ISA’s major objectives include global deployment of over 1,000 GW of solar generation capacity and mobilisation of investment of over US$1 trillion into solar energy by 2030.