International Solar Alliance General Assembly

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 21, Oct 2021

The fourth general assembly of The International Solar Alliance (ISA), is being held virtually.

• It is presided over by Minister for Power, New and Renewable Energy, Government of India and the President of the ISA Assembly.

Highlights:

• The Fourth Assembly of the ISA will deliberate on the key initiatives around the operationalisation of the OSOWOG initiative, the $1 trillion Solar Investment Roadmap for 2030, and approval of a Blended Financial Risk Mitigation Facility.
• World leaders of ISA member countries will also discuss the strategic plan of the ISA for the next five years.
• The ISA will also discuss the partnership with Global Energy Alliance (GEA) to scale up technical and financial support to LDCs and SIDS.

About the ISA Assembly:

The Assembly is the apex decision-making body of International Solar Alliance (ISA), in which each member country is represented.

• This body makes decisions concerning the implementation of the ISA’s Framework Agreement and coordinated actions to be taken to achieve its objective.
• The Assembly meets annually at the Ministerial level at the seat of the ISA, assesses the aggregate effect of the programmes and other activities in terms of deployment of solar energy, performance, reliability, as well as cost and scale of finance.

International Solar Alliance (ISA): 

• International Solar Alliance was launched in 2015.
• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of more than 122 countries initiated by India.
• ISA is a coalition of solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn to specifically address energy needs by harnessing solar energy.
• The Paris Declaration establishes ISA as an alliance dedicated to the promotion of solar energy among its member countries.
• ISA brings together countries with rich solar potential to aggregate global demand, thereby reducing prices through bulk purchase.
• It facilitates the deployment of existing solar technologies at scale, and promoting collaborative solar R&D and capacity building.

Secretariat:

• India and France jointly laid the foundation stone of ISA Headquarters.
• They inaugurated the interim Secretariat of the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy campus, Gurugram, Haryana.

Objectives:

• The ISA’s major objectives include global deployment of over 1,000GW of solar generation capacity and mobilisation of investment of over US$ 1000 billion into solar energy by 2030.
• The ISA envisions to enable the full ecosystem for availability and development of technology, economic resources, and development of storage technology, mass manufacturing and innovation.

Need for:

• The reduced cost of technology would enable the undertaking of more ambitious solar energy programmes.
• Solar is key source of affordable and reliable energy. Successful project implementation could play significant role in achieving the universal energy access goal (SDG 7).

• ISA’s six programmes could be a game changer for the conservation of environment Solar Applications for Agricultural Use, Affordable Finance at Scale, Mini Grids, and Solar Rooftops and Solar E-mobility & Storage and Large-Scale Solar Parks.