The first International Solar Alliance took place in India with the aim of rendering this indispensable energy alternative into an affordable technology for the fraternity of nations. The treaty-based organisation, co-founded by India along with France, cuts a wide arc of initiative with membership open to 121 countries, most of them located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The 61 countries that have joined the alliance and the 32 that have ratified the framework agreement post a strong message of target-orientation, a dynamic that is entirely welcome in this day and age of an alarming rate of fossil fuel-backed global energy consumption. Providing impetus to the ISA’s objectives are the rapid technological advances in the solar technology field that are making it cheaper, and easier to switch to.
The ISA’s 10-point action plan has ticked the boxes well, with affordability, raised power generation through solar means, framing of regulations and standards, consultancy support for bankable solar projects and a network of centres for excellence included in its agenda. It must now work towards ensuring that all these deliverables soon become a reality.
The UAE too has been making vigorous progress in making solar energy availability acquire a larger footprint with large-scale projects such as the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, the world’s largest concentrated solar power project in the world to be completed by 2030, and the Zayed Renewable Energy Complex in Abu Dhabi. The country’s leadership has been determinedly bringing about the change decade after decade, as it pursues variables in clean energy, reiterating the importance of a remapped strategy for sustainability that is no longer optional for countries.
