New Delhi: Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation said that there is immense scope for innovation & growth in the solar energy industry globally due to the growing demand for sustainable energy solutions and the government wants to promote it in a major way.
He was addressing the ISA Innovation and Investment Forum (ISA-IIF), organized by FICCI under the aegis of International Solar Alliance (ISA) with the support of Invest India.
“Technology innovation and investment attractiveness is the key to scaling up the capacity of solar energy. Scaling up the capacity of solar energy will eventually bring down the prices. However, to scale up the capacity we need alliance like ISA, which will benefit everybody. The Global Leadership Task Force of Corporates on Innovation constituted by ISA is set up to bring innovative technologies and finance and the Task Force will work with full force to complete this task. We are happy to work with all countries to make solar energy become a reality for everybody”, he added.
Addressing the opening session of the forum, Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General, International Solar Alliance (ISA) said, “Investment and Innovation is the key to progress and the Global Leadership Task Force of Corporates on Innovation is making substantial progress”. This Forum will be a good platform to attract solar investments in ISA member countries, and added, “No citizen in the world will be left without access to electricity and light.”
Sushil Jiwarajka, Member, FICCI National Executive Committee and Chairman, OMC Power speaking about his experience of setting up the mini-grids project in rural areas laid emphasis on land acquisition and predictable policy & regulation.
Manoj Kohli, Executive Chairman, SB Energy speaking about the importance of standardization for solar energy, said, it is very important to standardize equipment, technology and processes for large-scale deployment of solar energy and no industry can succeed without standardization.
Over 160 participants from the solar industry including global investors, banks, financial institutions, country representatives and project developers attended the ISA Innovation and Investment Forum. The objective of the Forum was to highlight areas of investment attractiveness for solar deployment in the ISA member countries and ways to address the financial and regulatory bottlenecks. The Forum also highlighted innovations for solar technology deployment in ISA member countries and investments needed for such innovations.
Country presentations were made by Guyana, Ghana, Peru, Rwanda and Tonga highlighting case studies and best practices of their government’s support and incentives for solar energy investments. A total of 16 countries participated in the Forum, including Australia, Comoros, Cuba, Fiji, France, Guinea, Guyana, Mauritius, Mali, Monaco, Nauru, Niger, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.
Constituted in March 2018 by ISA, the Global Leadership Task Force of Corporates on Innovation aims to address common challenges and embark on a practical action for innovation to create transformational impact in ISA member countries. The Task Force is chaired by Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO, SoftBank Group and the members of the Task Force include GE, GCL, LG Chem, OMC Power, SMA and State Bank of India, TOTAL and Trina Solar. FICCI is the Secretariat and Convener of the Task Force.
