India to propose World Solar Bank at upcoming summit
India will propose a World Solar Bank at the World Solar Technology Summit organized by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in September, the Business Standard reported.
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The virtual conference by the India-headquartered ISA will showcase state-of-the-art, next-generation technologies to ramp up solar deployment affordably.
By the numbers
The likely capital size of the World Solar Bank would be U.S. $10 billion. ISA officials said the country that would request to host the headquarters of the bank would have to contribute 30% of the proposed capital.
“A global competition would be held among the member countries to decide who will have the bank’s headquarters,” the ISA official was quoted as saying by the Business Standard.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the inaugural event. In addition, along ministers from all ISA member countries and other R&D institutions from around the world would attend.
Summit topics
The summit will be divided into four technical sessions. Well-known companies and research organizations in the green energy space will present their work and deliberate on solar technology trends.
Topics will include, according to pv magazine:
- Photovoltaic technology development and its future;
- Recent advances, including conversion efficiency improvements and declining costs in PV modules and storage
- Disruptive solar technologies for grid application – ground-mounted, floating or on residential and commercial rooftops
- solar beyond the power sector
One of the aims of the World Solar Bank is to bring together global resources to fund solar power projects in ISA member countries.
The ISA came together in 2015 during the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. The alliance, a partnership of solar resource-rich countries, currently has 121 countries as members.
Most of the participating countries are from Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe. Pakistan and China are not members of the ISA.
While speaking at the curtain raiser for the summit to be hosted by ISA next month, Indian Minister of State for Power R.K. Singh pointed solar energy is the future and technology would drive its down.
A few days ago, Modi reiterated the “One Sun, One World, One Grid” (OSOWOG) plan. The plan call for a transnational electricity grid supplying solar power across the globe, first announced in 2018.
M. Stanley Whittingham will deliver the keynote address.He will be joined by John B. Goodenough and Akira Yoshino. The trio won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries.
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