New Delhi: Two MOU’s (Memorandum of Understanding), including- one between the French Agency for Development and Solar Energy Corporation of India on innovation in Solar Energy and another between the French commission for Atomic and Alternative energies (CEA) – Bollore’ Blue Solutions, and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on storage, grid management and e-mobility along with a Joint Announcement of Demand Aggregation Pilots was made between India and USA at the Country sessions of France and USA at the 2nd Global RE-INVEST India-ISA Partnership Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet & Expo.
Welcoming the vibrant energy sector of France and USA, Mr. Anand Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said, “The Indo-French and Indo-US collaboration and cooperation has stood the test of times and grown stronger. The testimony of the Indo-French collaboration is nothing less than ISA, which was launched by Indian PM and French President on the sidelines of CoP 21. India is a huge market for renewables, the companies all across can come and invest. We invite French and American companies to invest in India and grow with us.”
The secretary believes the capacity addition would give immense growth opportunity to domestic renewable energy.
Addressing the attendees at the France Country Session, Ms. Brune Poirson, Minister of State for Ecological and Inclusive Transition said, “It’s a great pleasure for me to be here today. President Macron and PM Modi are deeply involved in issues related to climate and together they launched the ISA. This is the time for political action, political signal and for companies to act and find solutions. We have the vision, we know where we want to take our country and our citizens i.e. we want to fight climate change.” Lauding the renewable energy growth in India, she said “The goal to generate 40% non-fossil energy by 2030 and 175 GW of renewable energy, including 100 GW of solar energy, by 2022, is impressive. I often refer to India, for renewable energy, which grew by 81 percent in three years, from 2015 to 2018. ISA is a collaboration of India and France, where together we can collaborate and help other continents, for instance Africa.”
Ms. Isabella Detwiler, Deputy Minister Counselor, U S Embassy/Delhi, India said, “About $76 billion investment is required to fulfill India’s vision 2022, public funds alone will not be enough. Innovative private capital is required to turn Prime Minister Modi’s dream, into reality. In collaboration with the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, the Task Force has three goals for the same– Supporting the standardization of clean energy, establishing a payment security mechanism, for faster payments in the renewable energy sector and fostering diversification of solar panels. We want to leverage the private Indo-US collaborations in clean energy.”
Witnessing the country sessions were industry experts and sector players like Mr. Ajay Mathur, TERI, Mr. Renji Kumar, President, Indian Smart Grid Forum, Mr. Phillippe Malbranche, Director General, CEA-INES (French Commission for Atomic and Alternative Energies- French Solar Energy Research Institute), Mr. Francisco da Silva Passos, Project Manager, Bollore’ Blue Solutions and like Mr. Bhupesh Arora, Director Solar, Schneider Electric.
About 2nd Global RE-Invest India-ISA Partnership Renewable Energy Investors Meet & Expo:
RE-Invest is a global platform to explore strategies for development and deployment of renewables. It showcases India’s clean energy market and the Government’s efforts to scale up capacity to meet the national energy demand in socially, economically and ecologically sustainable ways. The 2nd Global RE-Invest will build upon the success of RE-Invest 2015 and provide an international forum to established players as well as new segments of investors and entrepreneurs to engage, ideate and innovate.
About ISA:
Vision and mission of the International Solar Alliance is to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries where the global community, including bilateral and multilateral organizations, corporates, industry, and other stakeholders, can make a positive contribution to assist and help achieve the common goals of increasing the use of solar energy in meeting energy needs of prospective ISA member countries in a safe, convenient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner.
