“ISA Can Act as a Medium to Achieve Universal Energy Access Target Set Up Before 2030”—Shri Piyush Goyal

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy, and Mines said that International Solar Alliance (ISA) can act as a medium to spread lessons on energy security which can help achieve universal energy access target set up in SDGs before 2030. He was speaking at the launch of ‘Scaling Solar Mini Grids’ by France and India on the sidelines of 52nd Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Ahmedabad on May 24, 2017.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Goyal called for deeper Indo-African cooperation. He said that the Indian renewable energy sector offers lessons, such as lower and innovative financing models, risk reduction, setting up large scale solar projects through energy parks. “India has achieved grid parity in solar tariffs,” he added. Shri Piyush Goyal also said that
scaling solar mini grids shall work in tandem with ISA’s overall objectives.
The main activities under the programme shall include -design and deploy small grids, adopt common standards, aggregate demand, help establish global credit enhancement and de-risking mechanisms, call for expression of interest, assess demand and costs requirement for mini grid projects, identify/develop attractive payment models for consumers, and persuade member countries with overseas assistance budgets to earmark a portion of their soft loan for the Third Programme. Mr Ahmed Said Hassaini Djaffar, Vice President of the Republic of Comoros in his address welcomed the ISA initiative and stated that Africa is a solar resource rich region and can help achieve targets in solar energy.

Source: pib.nic.in