World Solar Technology Summit: ISA | 18 Aug 2020

Why in News

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) will organise the First World Solar Technology Summit on 8th September, 2020 on a virtual platform.

  • The objective of the event is to bring the spotlight on state-of-the-art technologies as well as next-generation technologies which will provide impetus to the efforts towards harnessing solar energy more efficiently.

Key Points

  • Key Participants:
    • The Prime Minister of India will deliver the inaugural address of the First World Solar Technology Summit, to be graced by Ministers from member countries from across all ISA regions.
    • Dr. M. Stanley Whittingham who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (jointly with John B Goodenough & Akira Yoshino) in 2019 for the revolutionizing discovery of the lithium ion batteries.
    • CEOs of top global corporations will share their vision on how scientific breakthroughs and innovations can be commercially made available to all parts of the world for wider consumption.
  • Four Sessions: The event will hold four technical sessions that would be available to the participants in different languages namely English, Spanish, French & Arabic.
    • Session -1: Vision 2030 & Beyond: The overall context of Photovoltaic (PV) technology development and its future, on its way towards becoming the first source of energy worldwide, with PV technologies supplying 70% of the world’s electricity generation.
    • Session -2: Towards a Decarbonised Grid: The most recent advances (conversion efficiency improvements and declining costs) regarding key components such as PV modules and storage technologies.
    • Session -3: Disruptive Solar Technologies: On-grid applications, whether ground-mounted, floating, or integrated in residential and commercial rooftops.
    • Session -4: Solar Beyond the Power Sector: Innovative applications where PV is used to move, heat, cool, and drive eco-friendly industrial processes and produce fuels as well as off-grid applications, to provide universal access to energy.
  • I JOSE:
    • ISA would also launch the ISA Journal on Solar Energy (I JOSE) 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 vast network of NFPs (National Focal points) and STAR (Solar Technology and Application Resource centers) centers.
  • India’s Solar Energy Initiatives:
    • Solar energy has taken a central place in India's National Action Plan on Climate Change with the National Solar Mission as one of the key Missions.
      • National Solar Mission (NSM) was launched on 11th January, 2010.
      • Its objective is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating the policy conditions for solar technology diffusion across the country as quickly as possible.
      • It targets installing 100 GW grid-connected solar power plants by the year 2022. This is in line with India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) target to achieve about 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources and to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% from 2005 level by 2030.
    • In order to achieve the above target, the Government of India has launched various schemes to encourage generation of solar power in the country like Solar Park Scheme, Canal bank & Canal top Scheme, Bundling Scheme, Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Scheme etc.
    • Solar power capacity has increased by more than 11 times in the last five years from 2.6 GW in March, 2014 to 30 GW in July, 2019.
    • Recently, a 750 megawatt (MW) solar project has been inaugurated in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.
    • India has an ambitious cross-border power grid plan—‘One Sun One World One Grid’— that seeks to transfer solar power generated in one region to feed the electricity demands of others

International Solar Alliance

  • The launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was announced by the Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi) and former President of France (Francois Hollande) on 30th November 2015, at the 21st session of United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris, France.
    • It was conceived as a coalition of solar-resource-rich countries (which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn) to address their special energy needs.
  • 67 countries have signed and ratified the ISA framework agreement.
  • The Assembly of the ISA is the apex decision-making body which comprises representatives from each Member Country.
  • It aims at lowering the cost of technology and finance and thereby facilitate deployment of over 1,000 GW of solar energy and mobilize more than USD 1,000 billion into solar power by 2030 in Member countries.
    • Solar is a key source of affordable and reliable energy, thus it could play a significant role in achieving the universal energy access goal (SDG 7).
  • The Government of India has allotted 5 acres of land to the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) campus, Gurugram and has released a sum of Rs. 160 crore for creating a corpus fund, building infrastructure and meeting day to day recurring expenditure of the ISA up to the year 2021-22.

Source: PIB