Huge interest in solar alliance launched by PM Modi: India

India today said that the "huge" interest shown by various nations for the International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a matter of "great" satisfaction and the initiative is an "effective" means of enhancing the deployment of renewable energy in various solar rich nations.
Ajay Mathur, one of the key Indian negotiators said that 22 countries took part in the first meeting of the steering committee of the alliance held today and it saw a very large number of concrete suggestions on how to structure the ISA, the idea of which was mooted by Modi.
"The large number of countries which showed huge interest is a matter of great satisfaction not only for us but for the world. The solar alliance will be a very effective means of enhancing the deployment of solar energy in most solar resource rich countries of the world," Mathur who is also the director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency said.

Aimed at bringing solar rich nations together and provide clean, affordable and renewable solar energy within the reach of all, the ISA was launched by Modi yesterday at the Conference of Parties (CoP21), an initiative which he termed as his "long cherished dream".
Modi, who jointly launched the ISA with French President Francois Hollande, had said that India will host this initiative at the premises in its National Institute of Solar Energy and also provide land and contribute approximately USD 30 million to build the Secretariat infrastructure.
India will also support operations for five years and together we will raise long terms funds to achieve our prescribed goals, he said.

"ISA is an aggregation of countries which have a lot of solar resources. It enables all of them (countries) to utilise these resources to provide energy to all of their people. The goal is how we can work together, to develop programmes that help us all, to aggregate demand, work towards standards that help higher quality products, work out ways on the kind of investments that are required and others," Mathur said.
He said that Prime Minister Modi had yesterday emphasised that the alliance provides opportunity to meet our energy needs in a environmentally sustained manner.
"There was a meeting of the steering committee today. 22 countries took part in the meeting. A very large number of concrete suggestions on how to structure this alliance were given by countries. On the basis of this, a draft framework of the alliance will be created and discussed at the next meeting at Abu Dhabi," Mathur said.