International Solar Alliance To Become A Legal Entity

The International Solar Alliance (ISA), which aims at increasing solar energy deployment in member countries, will become a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization on Wednesday. ISA is India’s global initiative which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the president of France on 30 November 2015 in Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21, the UN climate conference. The ISA aims at addressing problems related to the deployment of solar energy through better harmonization and aggregation of demand from solar rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. As of now, 46 countries have signed and 19 countries have ratified the framework agreement of the ISA. The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) said in a statement that ISA will become a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization on December 6, 2017. The ISA has its headquarters in India with its secretariat located in the campus of the National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon, Haryana. Till date, three programmes—scaling solar applications for agriculture use, affordable finance at scale, and scaling solar mini-grids—have been launched which will facilitate the efficient deployment of solar energy in member countries and help in achieving universal energy access and speed up economic development. An amount of  $2 billion has been set aside by India for solar projects in Africa out of the $10 billion concessional line of credit for the continent. France has also earmarked a €300 million soft loan for solar-related projects in ISA member countries.