International Solar Alliance

• Technical Support & Capacity Building, Funding & Insurance for researchers
• Vision and mission of the International Solar Alliance is to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries where the global community, including bilateral and multilateral organizations, corporates, industry, and other stakeholders, can make a positive contribution to assist and help achieve the common goals of increasing the use of solar energy in meeting energy needs of prospective ISA member countries in a safe, convenient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner.
• There is no specific body in place to address the specific solar technology deployment needs of the solar resource rich countries located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
• Most of these countries are geographically located for optimal absorption of the sun’s rays. There is a great amount of sunlight year-round which can lead to cost effective solar power and other end uses with high insolation of almost 300 sunny days in a year.
• Most of the countries have large agrarian populations.
• Many countries face gaps in the potential solar energy manufacturing eco-system.
• Absence of universal energy access, energy equity and affordability are issues common to most of the solar resource rich countries.
• International Solar Alliance (ISA) is conceived as a coalition of solar resource rich countries to address their special energy needs and will provide a platform to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.
• It will not duplicate or replicate the efforts that others (like International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership(REEEP), International Energy Agency (IEA), Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), United Nations bodies, bilateral organizations etc.) are currently engaged in, but will establish networks and develop synergies with them and supplement their efforts in a sustainable and focused manner.
• The ISA’s major objectives include global deployment of over 1,000GW of solar generation capacity and mobilisation of investment of over US$ 1000 billion into solar energy by 2030.
• Research, Incubate, Develop, Deploy, Fund and collaborate in Solar projects among member nations.
• It was jointly launched by India and France in November 2015 in Paris on the side-lines of the UN Climate Conference (COP-21).
• Headquartered in India, its secretariat is located at National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurugram, Haryana.
• It would cater to large-scale deployment of solar energy through aggregation of demand, technology and innovation from solar rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
• The alliance is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization.
• The framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance opened for signatures in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016, on the sidelines of the Marrakech Climate Change Conference (the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties, or COP 22).
• On its first day (15 November), sixteen countries signed the Agreement.
• As of now 84 nations have signed and 63 countries ratified the agreement.
• ISA Program 1: "Scaling Solar Applications for Agricultural Use”
• ISA Program 2: "Affordable Finance at Scale"
• ISA Program 3: "Scaling Solar Mini Grids"
• ISA Program 4: "Scaling Rooftop Solar"
• ISA Program 5: "Scaling Solar E-Mobility & Storage”
• For building domestic capacity of the ISA member countries programmes such as STAR - C Programme, development of the Infopedia etc. have been launched.
• STAR C is a Solar Tehnology Application Resource Centre project.
• STAR-C (Solar Technology Application Resource-Center) aims at building a network of technical training and research centers in order to promote knowledge dissemination and capacity-building with regards to solar energy and infrastructure projects.
• Infopedia is an online platform dedicated to the dissemination of information, best practices and knowledge on Solar Energy.
• The alliance has partnered with World Bank to launch Global Solar Atlas at an ISA event at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
• Global Solar Atlas is a free online tool that displays annual average solar power potential at any location in the world and thus identify potential sites for solar power generation. World Bank announced "This tool will help governments save millions of dollars on their own research and provide investors and solar developers with an easily accessible and uniform platform to compare resource potential between sites in one region or across multiple countries.

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