Price of Solar Power May Fall Even Below The Current Lowest Price of Rs 2.44: ISA Director

Romania Joins As The 118th Member Country Of International Solar Alliance

ISA has set a target of 1000 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in its member countries by the year 2030.

India’s solar power has hit a new low this year and is going down even below the current lowest price of Rs 2.44 per unit believes the head of a new multilateral agency set up International Solar Alliance (ISA).

 “Technology and innovation, coupled with increased demand was likely to drive down the prices even below the current lowest price of Rs 2.44 per unit that was achieved at an auction for a solar project in Rajasthan earlier this year,” said Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General of International Solar Alliance.

“Eventually it is a question of demand and supply. Technology is moving very fast and surprising us every day. We are already coming out with flexible solar panels now. You can wrap them around a train coach or put them on a wall. Semi-flexible panels are in the market. The next stage is 3-D printing of solar panels which is still at the development stage. It is a matter of just a few years. Once 3-D printing is made possible, the costs of production will come down further, bringing down the prices of solar electricity. So, I do not think that the prices have rock bottom and cannot go further down,” Tripathy added.

The International Solar Alliance is a treaty based international inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The alliance was jointly launched by Prime Minister Modi and the then French President Francois Hollande in Paris on November 30, 2015. The multilateral agency has set a target of 1000 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in its member countries by the year 2030.

ISA director said plans for about 300 GW were already under consideration including 12 GW in India. “In the next 12-13 years, we have to add another 700 GW of capacity and it would require an investment of about $1000 billion,” he said.

The ISA currently has 44 members. Only 16 of them have so far ratified the ISA charter, two of them doing in the last ten days. ISA will become a treaty-based, inter-governmental global organisation on December 6 this year.

Source: Indian Express