What is the International Solar Alliance
The International Solar Alliance was launched in 2015 after the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. In November 2016, it was opened for signature at Marrakesh, Morocco.
An International Agency for Solar Policy and Application has been established as the headquarters in India.
The deliberate reason for launching the ISA at the Paris climate meet was to signify the intent of the developing states to tackle climate change. The target of India is to install 100 GW of solar power by 2022.
This would reduce emission intensity by 3-35 percent by 2030. The objective of the ISA is to develop solar energy through world cooperation by focusing upon 121 countries between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
A short film on the International Solar Alliance (ISA)
As today the ISA is an international treaty-based organization, it has geopolitical advantages for India as India is able to display its global leadership commitments.ISA will transform India into a technology hub with the manufacturing of solar technologies and syncs well with Make in India. However, the ISA is fraught with certain challenges.
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The cost of installation of solar technologies still remains high. The developing states find coal plants to generate electricity cheaper. Secondly, as the US has held a monopoly over the solar cells, the countries need to import them from the US. The US charges high tariffs and this increases the cost of solar energy.
The research and development in solar technologies still remain very low. The storage of solar energy remains a problem due to the common and wide use of lithium batteries.
