Context

• Recently, ISA Assembly and Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, shared details of the First World Solar Technology Summit being organized by ISA on a virtual platform on September 08, 2020.

Objective

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

I-JOSE

• ISA would also be launching 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.

Back to Basics

• The ISA, an action-oriented organization, 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.
• 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.
• The reduced cost of technology would enable the undertaking of more ambitious solar energy programmes. Noting that 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).
• The ISA has 67 countries as ISA has six programmes viz. Solar Applications for Agricultural Use, Affordable Finance at Scale, Mini Grids, and Solar Rooftops and Solar E-mobility & Storage and Large-Scale Solar Parks.
• Till date, ISA has aggregated a pipeline of solar projects worth USD 5.5 Billion and working to facilitate financing of solar projects in member countries.
• Launched 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.
• The Government of India has allotted 5 acres of land to the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) campus, Gurugram.

Source: PIB