The First World Solar Technology Summit will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ministers of all ISA Member Countries and Global Institutions to attend. Also, Union Power Minister invites all stakeholders for participating in the event and a galaxy of Speakers from Nobel Laureate, Dr. Stanley Whittingham to Heads of Global Corporations to set the tone of the deliberations focusing on innovative, cost-effective, affordable solar technologies.

The Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry (jointly with John B Goodenough & Akira Yoshino) in 2019 for revolutionizing discovery of the lithium ion batteries, Dr. M Stanley Whittingham will be presenting the Keynote Address during the Inaugural Ceremony of The First World Solar Technology Summit. The event is supposed to follow with a power jammed session of CEOs of the top global corporations that made sovereign progress in implementation and scaling of solar technologies. The CEOs are set to take part in the Global CEOs session, where the panel includes - Mr. Bertrand Piccard FRSGS, Founder and Chairman, Solar Impulse Foundation, Switzerland; Mr. Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman & CEO, Schneider Electric; Mr. Eric Rondolat, Chief Executive Officer, Signify. The elite panel leaders will share how they crossed the hurdles and made scientific breakthroughs and innovations that are commercially viable in every part of the world and gives a wider consumption option.

There will be four technical-sessions in the event in different languages, which are English, Spanish, French, and Arabic. Topmost companies and research organizations from different parts of the world will present their work on latest trends in solar technologies.

The sessions are divided in the following manner – 

Session 1 - Vision 2030 & Beyond – This session will include context related to PV technology development and its future, adding the PV technology’s way to becoming the first source of energy worldwide and supplying around 70 percent of the world’s electricity generation.

Session 2 – Towards a Decarbonized Grid – The session will include concepts of most recent advancements – conversion efficiency improvements and declining costs, which relate to key components like PV modules and storage technologies.

Session 3 – Disruptive Solar Technologies – The session will include discussions regarding on-grid applications of ground-mounted, floating, and integrated in residential and commercial rooftops disruptive solar technologies.

Session 4 – Solar Beyond the Power Sector – The session will include discussion on innovative applications where PV is used for moving, heating, cooling, and driving eco-friendly industrial processes and for producing fuels like off-grid applications for delivering universal access to energy.

The Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and President, ISA Assembly, Shri RK Singh delivered keynote address at the Curtain Raiser, congratulating ISA for bringing the first-ever World Solar Technology Summit in reality.

The World Solar Technology Summit purposes to drive the necessary growth of the solar energy around the world through initiatives, when the world is striving to fight the corona pandemic, the collective efforts will help in facing the thrown challenges and achieving the objective of providing the universal electricity access. RK Singh invited all stakeholders to attend and share thought in the conference.

Ms. Dana Purcarescu, Chargee d’ affaires, Embassy of France, India, congratulated the ISA team for putting in efforts and stated that the dream of decarbonizing the world is seen by all and everyone aspires for solar to play a leading role in realizing it. The First World Solar Technology Summit is touted to help in identifying the technologies that could ramp up solar deployment at an affordable cost. She wished the best to ISA and hoped for the best outcomes.

The DG, ISA, Shri Upendra Tripathy, said, “The role of technology has drastically changed over the past few years and will continue to change as people look towards technology for solutions more than ever before. Further, mutual co-operation among the member countries has been the pillar of the solar PV revolution. ISA must fulfill the dream of lighting every home no matter how far away by bringing the innovative and affordable technologies to the forefront. World Solar Technology Summit is a stepping stone in that direction.”

As an action-oriented organization, ISA aims to lower the cost of technology and finance and facilitate deployment of over 1,000 GW of solar energy and mobilize USD 1,000+ billion into solar power by 2023 in the member countries. ISA’s vision is to enable the full ecosystem for availability and development of technology, economic resources, and development of storage technology, mass manufacturing, and innovation. Lowering the cost of technology would enable the implementation of more powerful solar energy programs. As solar is a key source of affordable and reliable energy, successful project implementation could boost the process of achieving the universal energy access goal (SDG 7). ISA has 67 countries as ISA six programs, which are Solar Applications for Agricultural Use, Affordable Finance at Scale, Mini-Grids, and Solar Rooftops and Solar E-mobility & Storage and Large-Scale Solar Parks. 

Till now, ISA has aggregated a chain of solar projects that worth USD 5.5 billion and working for facilitating of solar projects in the member countries.