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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India has set a target of achieving 100 GW of solar power by 2022, which will be out of the total 175 GW the country plans to produce from renewable sources.
“In India, we have started the world's largest renewable energy expansion program. We will generate 175 GW of electricity from renewable sources of energy by 2022, of which 100 GW will be from solar power. We have already achieved 20 GW installed solar power,” Modi said here on Sunday at the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Summit that was co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The ISA is a treaty-based coalition of 121 solar resource rich countries, which are located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, created to address their special energy needs and will provide a platform to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.
India will contribute $27 million to the ISA for creating the corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over a 5-year duration from 2016-17 to 2020-21. In addition, public sector undertakings of the government – Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) – have contributed $1 million each for creating the ISA corpus fund.
The Summit was attended by 23 heads of state and several other top level officials form many countries. “I am very grateful to France and to you all for making this possible. Of the 121 potential countries, 61 have already joined the International Solar Alliance. 32 have ratified the Framework Agreement,” Modi added.
The PM also highlighted 10 action points for countries even as he outlined the next steps in making ISA a successful initiative. “First and foremost, we have to ensure that better and affordable solar technology is available to all and accessible to everyone. We need to increase the proportion of solar power in our energy mix,” he said.
He also highlighted towards changes that are to be made in regulatory aspects and standards to adopt and expedite solar solutions. “Developing countries will have to develop consultancy support for bankable solar projects. We need to create a comprehensive network of centers of excellence,” he added.
He said the ISA Secretariat has to be strengthened and made professional. “In India, the Vedas considered the Sun as the spirit of the world thousands of years ago. In India, the Sun is considered to be the nutrition needed to sustain life. Today, when we are looking for a way to tackle the challenge of Climate Change, then we have to look at the balanced and holistic view of India's ancient philosophy.”
On January 25, 2016 PM Modi and then French President Francois Hollande had laid the foundation stone of the ISA Headquarters and inaugurated the interim Secretariat of the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurugram, Haryana.
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