The International Solar Alliance (ISA) on October 18 held its fifth general assembly meeting, in which it approved the introduction of “Solar Facility” - a financial mechanism expected to stimulate investments in solar power through payment guarantee and insurance funds. Besides, Union power minister RK Singh, who got re-elected as the president of the ISA, announced that France will soon sign an agreement with India in furthering the latter’s green hydrogen mission.
The “Solar Facility” is expected to drive investments in the solar sector, especially in Africa, through two financial components - solar payment guarantee fund and solar insurance fund. “The Solar Facility is expected to stimulate high potential solar technologies, by attracting private capital to flow into underserved markets in Africa, while ensuring a payment and insurance mechanism as a first loss guarantee. The ISA will soon operationalise Solar Facility to crowdsource investments from various donors across the globe and proposed projects in Africa will be able to purchase payment guarantees or partial insurance premium from these funds,” the ISA said in a statement after its fifth Assembly meeting concluded.
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In an interaction with reporters, Minister Singh said the objective of ISA now will be to give electricity access to about 700 million people (who currently do not have electricity access) through renewable energy. “The past two years have also provided us multiple reminders that the global dependence on fossil fuels is unhealthy, not just for the environment, but also for the economy. The good news is that we already have the tools we need to counter these, and the development in technology is making sure that even more effective resources are made available in the years to come. It is now up to us to decide how quickly we can deploy these. In this pursuit for energy transition, we also have the responsibility of enabling development in the parts of the world that lack access to energy and energy security.”
“Also, France will soon be partnering with India for green hydrogen. We already have partnered for other renewable resources, but green hydrogen is going to be the latest one,” Singh added.
The union minister said since India has substantial experience in solar power, it will provide consultancy, help them (African countries) in aggregating their electricity demand, design bids for them, roll out of capacities, transmission and distribution among other aspects.
The ISA is an international organisation with 110 member and signatory countries. It works with governments to improve energy access and security worldwide and promote solar power as a sustainable way to transition to a carbon-neutral future. ISA’s mission is to unlock $1 trillion of investments in solar by 2030 while reducing the cost of the technology and its financing. It promotes the use of solar energy in the agriculture, health, transport and power generation sectors. ISA member countries are driving change by enacting policies and regulations, sharing best practices, agreeing on common standards, and mobilising investments. With the signing and ratification of the ISA Framework Agreement by 15 countries on December 6 2017.
In the meeting, France also got re-elected as the Co-President of ISA Assembly. Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, France's Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships said, “As we move towards COP27, the International Solar Alliance is playing a key role to build a broad coalition in favour of ambitious climate commitments. It can count on France’s full support. All over the world we have common challenges. We are facing a major energy crisis. The Russian aggression in Ukraine has played consequences on energy matters not just there but all over the world,” she said.
“With ISA, our objective is to accelerate the programme of renewable energy, and this is not only a climate imperative but is also of the question of energy dependence and energy security for all of us,” Zacharopoulou said.
The ISA Assembly also approved the SolarX Grand Challenge, which is planned to focus on innovation and start-ups, particularly decentralised solar energy applications that contribute to livelihoods, such as agriculture, health, and small-scale industrial applications. This will foster a three-fold benefit– promotion of the solar energy sector, thinning of the gap of the energy crisis, and promoting a solar start-up ecosystem.
Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General of International Solar Alliance, said the payment guarantee fund will only provide a partial guarantee. “With minimal default, the guarantee fund would enable investments in geographies that do not receive investments. In addition, the Solar Insurance Fund will reduce the burden of insurance premium for solar developers in the pre-revenue phase of the project. It will offset the cost of insurance for a specified period. We are grateful to the ISA Assembly for driving the solar agenda and helping catalyse growth in the global clean energy sector,” he said.
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