Palau Joins International Solar Alliance

Palau, an archipelago of over 500 islands in Oceania, on Tuesday became the 76th signatory country to join the International Solar Alliance. Republic of Palau (Palau) is an archipelago nation located in the western Pacific Ocean.

International Solar Alliance

International Solar Alliance (ISA) aims to provide a common platform to address the specific solar technology deployment needs of the solar resource-rich countries located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Harnessing Solar Energy

Availability of abundant solar energy in these countries can be utilised to generate cost-effective solar power to address the challenges of the absence of universal energy access, energy equity and affordability.

International Solar Alliance will not duplicate the efforts that other bodies like International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), International Energy Agency (IEA), Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), United Nations bodies, bilateral organizations etc. rather it will establish networks and develop synergies with them and supplement their efforts in a sustainable and focused manner.

ISA has launched three major programmes:

• Scaling Solar Applications for Agriculture Use.
• Affordable Finance at Scale.
• Scaling Solar Mini-grids to help in achieving the overall goal of increasing solar energy deployment in the ISA member countries for achieving universal energy access and speeding up economic development.

Further ISA is planning to launch two more programmes: Scaling Solar Rooftops and Scaling Solar E-mobility and Storage.

International Solar Alliance is the first body that will have a secretariat in India. India plays a significant role in the alliance in terms of being a host as well as a major contributor to achieve the target of 1 TW of solar energy by 2030 which would require $1 trillion to achieve with a target to produce 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, would account for a tenth of ISA’s goal.