ISA and the Quest for Clean Energy

Global Strat View hosted a panel discussion on the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Quest for Clean Energy on February 4, 2022, at the National Press Club, Washington.

Moderated by Kostis Geropoulos, Energy Editor at New Europe, the panelists included Jagjeet Sareen, Assistant Director General of International Solar Alliance (ISA); Llewellyn King, founder of the Energy Daily; and Neelima Jain, Deputy Director & Senior Fellow, Wadhwani Chair in U.S. India Policy Studies, CSIS.

“If you add up all the net zero commitments made by countries in Glasgow, solar technology applications provide more than 50 percent of the solution. And if you add hydrogen to it, if you add storage, heating and cooling, the offering of solar as a solution goes about 65 percent. It’s well established among among the top leaders, thinkers, modelers, industry people who are doing forecasting that we need to harness solar technology in a much bigger way to solve the energy transition problem if we are really serious about this,” said Jagjeet Sareen of International Solar Alliance (ISA).

“India has been punching above its weight as part of the additional renewable energy capacity system, despite continuing to balance the development and social needs of a large and complex developing nation. The installed capacity of renewable energy overall has increased to about 220 plus percent in the last four years, and solar power capacity alone has increased more than 11 fold in the last five years,” said Neelima Jain.

“Solar electricity from photovoltaic cells is cheap. We know how to make it. We know how to deploy it. We need to find out how to move it around quickly and cheaply and how to store it. It is one of the great benefits for mankind, and it is definitely a huge benefit in fighting carbon in the atmosphere,” said Llewellyn King.

The ISA was founded by India and France to mobilize efforts against climate change through deployment of solar energy solutions. It was conceptualized on the sidelines of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in 2015. India hosted the Founding Conference of the ISA in 2018, and the ISA Secretariat was established in New Delhi. 40 % of India’s total installed electricity capacity today is non-fossil based. The ISA has been pushed to the forefront for supporting solarisation across developing countries, as well as drive down prices based on large tenders conducted by it on its members behalf.