As India gears up to host the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit next month, efforts are underway to provide a momentum to solar deployments in over 120 sunshine countries.

ISA, a brainchild of India and France launched at the Paris climate summit in 2015 with the aim to efficiently exploit solar energy in the countries that lie between the tropics, expects to ink a host country agreement just ahead of the big day. The agreement is to be signed between the ISA and India, the latter being the nation that is home to its headquarters and is leading the intergovernmental coalition to kick-start solar projects globally.

The agreement that India is hoping will be sealed by March 9 will provide operational autonomy to the host country for basic functioning like recruitments, signing contracts and issuing of tenders, which are crucial for the implementation of solar programmes that are to be undertaken under the ISA.

The one-day ISA summit that will be held on March 11 at the President house in the capital city of Delhi will be an important one, given that it will be the first summit for the ISA since it became a legal entity In December last year following ratification by more than 15 countries.

Two new programmes — on scaling solar E-mobility and storage, and on rooftop solar — are expected to be unveiled at the summit that will see a presence of heads of over 50 member countries including France and India, who had jointly launched the sunshine coalition at the 2015 climate summit in Paris. Read more…