Recognising that sustainable development, universal energy access and energy security are critical to the sheer prosperity and future of the planet, Union minister of state for coal, power and renewable energy Piyush Goyal said on Monday that clean and renewable energy needs to be made affordable for all.
“We do, hereby, declare our intention to support India’s proposal to launch an International Solar Alliance as a common platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn,” Goyal said at the launch of the International Solar Alliance at the COP21 climate summit.
The Union Minister asserted that India affirms its intention to join the international solar alliance as a founding member to ensure promotion of green, clean and sustainable energy and to draw on the beneficiaries of the sun in this endeavor, with a united vision of bringing clean, affordable and renewable energy within the reach of all.
“We share the collective ambition to undertake innovative and consulted efforts with a view to reduce the cost of finance and cost of technology for immediate deployment of competitive solar generation capacity in all our countries and to pave the way for future solar generation, storage and good technology adapted to our country’s individual needs,” Goyal added.
He also stressed on the fact that the alliance intends to make joint efforts through innovative policies, projects, programs, capacity building measures and financial instruments to globalise more than a 100 billion USD of investments that are needed by 2030 for the massive deployment of affordable energy.
“We recognize that the reduced cost of finance would enable us to undertake more ambitious solar energy programs to bring development and prosperity for our people. We intend working together towards the development of appropriate benchmarks, facilitating resource assessment, supporting research and development and demonstration facilities in a view to encourage innovative and affordable applications of solar energy,” Goyal said.
