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Press Release

Five PSU's in India's Hydrocarbon Sector join ISA's Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (ISA-CSCA); Pledge US$ 5 Million as Corporate Partners

Sep 08, 2020

Half of India's PSU owned fuel stations to be solar powered in five years

 

PM, Shri Narendra Modi reiterates India's commitment to renewable energy in spite of lowest per capita carbon emission in the world

 

Tripartite agreement between India's New and Renewable Energy Ministry, the World Bank and the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on One Sun, One World, One Grid

 

 

NEW DELHI, 08 September 2020:  The first World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS) got off to a grand start, this afternoon with participants and speakers from across the globe joining the deliberations virtually to discuss how to accelerate the adoption of affordable and sustainable clean green energy across the world.

 

The President of the ISA Assembly, India's New and Renewable Energy Minister, Mr R.K. Singh was joined by the Vice Presidents of ISA from Africa, Asia Pacific and the Latin American and Caribbean Region (LAC) during the inaugural address. The Co- President of the Assembly, France's Minister for Ecological Transition sent a video message to the Summit.

 

India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, speaking at the inaugural lauded the far -sighted ISA initiative of India's Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the Former French President Mr Francois Hollande launched during the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015, strongly supported the move towards clean, affordable energy by harnessing the power of the Sun.

 

The Minister committed that the entire hydrocarbon will support the deployment and increased promotion of solar energy and announced that five Public Sector undertakings under his Ministry will be joining ISA's Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (ISA-CSCA) as Corporate Partners and will be contributing to ISA's Corpus Fund. The CSCA is a consortium of public and private entities working in the direction of Universal Energy Access and meeting climate targets. A recent initiative, it brings together energy or non-energy-based companies joining ISA as Corporate Partners. A company, irrespective of its core business  area,  is welcome to join this Coalition  by first becoming a Corporate Partner of ISA. -Each partner pledges US$ 1 million to join the coalition.

 

With this commitment from the five PSUs, ONGC, IOCL, BPCL, Hindustan Petroleum an GAIL, ISA will have a corpus fund of US$17 million. It is also expected that seven more partners will join in October during the Assembly.

 

Speaking at  the 'First World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS)', organized by International Solar Alliance (ISA) with FICCI as the Convenor for the Global Leadership Task Force of Corporates on Innovation, Mr Pradhan said that the summit will play a key role in our collective journey to make Solar Energy available for the common people. �Increasingly and rightly so, Indian oil and gas companies are actively taking part in clean energy transition,� he added.

 

Mr Pradhan further said that in order to reduce carbon footprints, Indian oil and gas companies will be focused more on green energy investments such as renewable, biofuel, and hydrogen energy going forward. The oil and gas PSU are increasingly evaluating new opportunities in the solar and RE space with a diversification. �I'm happy to announce that five Public Sector Undertakings, ONGC, IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, and GAIL, under our ministry will be joining ISA coalition for sustainable climate as corporate partners,� said Mr Pradhan.

 

Mr Dharmendra Pradhan today said our oil and gas companies are making efforts to deploy solar panels across the value chain of their operation. The current installed capacity is 270 MW and an additional 60MW will be added in the coming years. �We have taken up the mission of solarising 50 percent of the fuel stations owned by the PSU companies in the next 5 years. More than 5000 of fuel station of Indian Oil were solarised last year,� he said. 

 

Mr RK Singh, Minister of Power, New and Renewable Energy & Skill Development, GoI, and President, International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly read out Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message for the summit. The message said that this summit provides an ideal occasion to discuss the future of technology in solar energy. India and France had jointly taken the initiative of a national solar alliance in 2015. The seeds for the idea down 5 years ago have today blossomed into an inter-governmental alliance. 

 

Further, the message read that a global dialogue on solar energy, particularly in solar rich nations that do not possess the sources for product utilization is the need of the hour. The objective of the alliance was to pool together the demand and resources for the technologies and finance. 

 

�Five years ago, world leaders had taken a pledge to restrict the rise in global temperatures through a gradual reduction in the dependence on fossil gas. India has the lowest per capita carbon emission and ranks fourth in Renewable power, but we are still pressed ahead with the deployment of Renewable Energy at a frantic pace. We have enhanced our installed renewable capacity by 2.5 times and increased our solar installed capacity by more than 13 times,� the Prime Minister's message said.

 

The message from the PM also informed about Kusum, a government scheme that aims to replace the use of diesel in our farm sector with solar energy. Under this scheme, the government has targeted the solarisation of 2.8 million irrigation pumps. Such schemes will not only benefit the environment but also increase the incomes of the farmers, read out Mr RK Singh.

 

One of the main action- agenda of the summit was the tripartite agreement signed between the New and Renewable Energy Ministry  the World bank and the ISA. The World bank will be funding the initiative and will explore how energy from one part of the world when the sun is shining can be shared with another part of the world  

 Speaking after signing the agreement, Mr Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank said, �India's commitment to play its global role as the lighthouse of the world would be pivotal in ensuring the One Sun, One World, One Grid.� (OSOWOG).

 

The OSOWOG is based on the three critical pivots of sustainability, global interdependencies, and India's commitment to play its global role. The World Bank Group is committed to support India and the global community in achieving this vision.�

 

Three Partnership Agreements were signed by ISA with International Institute for Refrigeration, Paris; Global Green Growth Institute (Republic of Korea); NTPC,

ISA's Technology Journal, Solar Compass 360 was also announced at the event .

 

Speaking at the summit, Prof K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to GoI, said, �We must acknowledge that Solar Energy has become a very powerful source of providing energy at modest costs�. 

Partnerships between energy generation and energy storage is very important. While we focus on the storage solutions, we must also focus of reuse and recycle, he said. �India's emission mitigation policy is centered on electricity to expand to transportation in the industrial and agricultural sector as well,� added Prof Raghavan.

 

Mr Bertrand Piccard, FRSGS, Founder and Chairman, Solar Impulse Foundation, Switzerland, said, �It's believed by some countries that Solar Energy is expensive, which is not true anymore as no other source of energy can compete with Solar Power in terms of cost.�

 

Nobel laureate Dr M Stanley Whittingham, Director and Professor of Chemistry, Institute for Materials Research and the Materials Science and Engineering Program (IMRMREP) Binghamton University, State University of New York, said, �Li-ion Batteries have transformed the adoption of renewables and allowing the world to move to an electrical society.� He also added that the future of storage will be one that eliminates dirty peak power plants.

 

Amb. Claver Gatete, Minister of Infrastructure, Rwanda said, �In Rwanda, we have set a target of achieving universal access to electricity by 2024. This is planned to be achieved through a combination of on-grid and off-grid energy connections at 52% and 48% respectively. 

 

"The National Energy Policy prioritizes the deployment of renewable energies of which solar is included and the set target is to deploy over 60% before the end of 2030 (SDG7 target) and today the renewable generation mix is at 55%,� Amb Gatete added.

 

Mr Luis Miguel Inch�ustegui Zevallos, Minister of Energy and Mines, Republic of Peru & Vice President of ISA Assembly (LAC Region) said, �Peru is committed to the global efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. The objective of our participation at the summit was to position our country as a technical hub in the generation and the use of solar energy and other clean energy technologies.�

 

Ms Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy, representing Hon'ble President, European Commission, Brussels, said, �In addressing the defining issues of our generation and countries- climate change and clean energy for all, the EU Green Deal was launched. By the mid of this century, we aim to make Europe a carbon-neutral continent and that it will work hand in hand with international partners for a global clean energy transition.�

 

Ms Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition, French Government and Co-President of the ISA Assembly said, �France has a multi-tier energy program that supports the development of solar energy. Through its low carbon strategy, France also encourages solar application to de-carbonize all sectors of its economy.�

 

Mr Upendra Tripathy, Director General, ISA said, �Together we will make great strides under the framework agreements.�

 

The inaugural was followed by the Global CEO's session, with Mr. Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman & CEO, Schneider Electric, Mr. Eric Rondolat, Chief Executive Officer, Signify

Mr. Anand G Mahindra, Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.,Mr. Bertrand Piccard, Chairman, Solar Impulse Foundation, Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals & President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Mr. Uday Kotak, CEO & Founder, Kotak Mahindra Bank, President CII and Ms. Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO, Solar Power Europe, Belgium.

 

A moderated conversation between the CEOs of the world's largest corporations that contribute greatly towards the promotion of solar energy integration with other renewables and storage for sustainable energy solutions will be discussed. Four technical sessions will see a galaxy of renowned academicians, scientists, researchers as well as industry leaders deliberate on the future prospects of the solar PV technology and the vision for solar energy up to 2030 and beyond. Equally interesting sessions have been planned on exploring low cost � electricity (Towards a Decarbonized Grid) followed by intense deliberations on Disruptive Solar Technologies and Solar Beyond the Power Sector.

 

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