New Delhi: The International Solar Alliance, an Indian-led initiative grouping countries with the most sunshine hours per day, opened its first festival in New Delhi on Thursday to drive forward solar advocacy and influence global energy transition.
Launched by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and France’s then-President Francois Hollande during the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference, or COP21, in Paris, the ISA comprises over 100 signatory countries.
Most of the members are “sunshine countries,” or those with the most sunlight hours per day. The main objective of the alliance is to advocate for the efficient consumption of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
The ISA’s first International Solar Festival, being held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday, was kicked off by Modi, who vowed India’s support for “every effort to build an inclusive, clean and green planet.”
Modi was addressing the festival’s participants in a video message from Singapore, where he is on a state visit.
“We were the first G20 nation to achieve the Paris commitments in renewable energy,” he said. “The remarkable growth of solar energy is a key reason in making this possible. Our solar energy capacity has increased 32-fold in the last 10 years.”
India’s installed solar energy capacity stands at about 70 gigawatts, with the potential estimated at 748 GW, according to the National Institute of Solar Energy.
“To ensure an energy transition, the world must collectively discuss some important matters. The imbalance in the concentration of green energy investments needs to be addressed. Manufacturing and technology need to be democratized to help developing countries,” Modi said.
“Empowering least developed countries and small island developing states should be a top priority.”
India has positioned itself as a leader in the Global South in developing the solar energy industry.
“India has been a leader in developing countries in putting in place policies, (and) tweaking them periodically as we have moved ahead. And in the process, we have built up our solar capacity from 20 megawatts to something of the order of 70 GW,” Dr. Ajay Mathur, director-general of the ISA, told Arab News.
“Clearly, our policy in the developing country context — where the energy demand is increasing, where the resources are limited — is of value to other developing countries who are in the same space.”
Some of the festival’s main highlights are how the transition to solar energy can create opportunities for youth, enable inclusivity, and empower women.
“This festival is reaching out to women, is reaching out to youth, is reaching out to communities, is reaching out to the private sector,” said Mathur.
“We want them to talk to each other, we want them to tell the best practices to each other, we want to learn from their experience.”
Chetan Singh Solanki, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, who has since 2020 traveled across the country on a solar-powered bus to promote energy literacy, told Arab News it was high time that humankind switched toward solar-powered life.
“Solar energy is an integral part of our life and due to the advancement, the progress that we have moved away from the center of our existence, the sun, and we have based our life on coal, oil and gas,” he said, adding that action needs to be taken in the face of climate change-driven disasters such as floods, droughts, forest fires, and ice melting.
“It is very high time that we come back to the center of our existence, that is the sun, the solar energy. It is high time that we run our lives, our affairs, and cook food and travel on solar energy.”
