India to set up $350 million Solar Development Fund for solar projects

India announced setting up of $350 million Solar Development Fund for financing solar projects under the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The fund was announced by Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy R K Singh at first ever ISA outreach programmes ‘International Solar Alliance Forum’ held in Abu Dhabi’s World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2018.

World Future Energy Summit (WFES)

WFES is an annual event dedicated to advancing future energy, energy efficiency and clean technologies. It is hosted by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company and staged at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
WFES includes summit, an exhibition, Project Village, Round Table Discussions, Young Future Energy Leaders program, corporate meetings and social events. It attracts world leaders, international policy makers, industry leaders, investors, experts, academia, intellectuals and journalists to discuss practical and sustainable solutions to future energy challenges. It also provides opportunity for those having interest in addressing climate change to come together to share solutions, reach agreements and continue to make progress.

Major announcements made during WFES 2018

India signed LoIs / MoUs of 9 solar related projects which various company and bankers. It will sign over 100 projects by April 2018 under ISA umbrella. YES Bank committed financing solar projects of over $5 Billion. CLP and NTPC Limited announced forging partnership deal with ISA and committed to make voluntary contribution of $1 million each to ISA fund corpus. International Energy Agency (IEA) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) also announced entering into partnership with ISA.

International Solar Alliance (ISA)

ISA was established by the Paris Declaration as an alliance dedicated to promotion of solar energy among its member countries. The ISA Framework Agreement entered into force in December 2017 making ISA formally treaty based International Intergovernmental Organization with headquarters at Gurugram, India. As of now the ISA Framework Agreement has been signed by 48 countries,
Its 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. It also aims to bring together countries with rich solar potential to aggregate global demand, thereby reducing prices through bulk purchase, facilitating deployment of existing solar technologies at scale and promoting collaborative solar R&D and capacity building.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2018