STAR Centres to be hubs of capacity building activities
India is providing assistance of Rs.100 crore per year to International Solar Alliance for 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 to help energy transition, especially in developing and emerging economies, Minister for New & Renewable Energy and Power R. K. Singh has told parliament o 7 Dec 2023.
He highlighted that the ISA is undertaking the following actions to promote renewable energy globally:
Preparing a global solar stocktake, in parallel with the global stocktake being conducted by the UNFCCC, which is crucial to laying the roadmap for achieving the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in various countries, and the role of solar energy in mitigating climate change and leading us towards a sustainable future powered by solar energy.
Setting up of a Global Solar Facility with a payment guarantee mechanism and an insurance premium support fund to provide confidence to private investors and companies and to invest in decentralized solar projects in Africa.
Capacity building in other countries, including setting up of STAR (Solar Technology Application Resource) centres in 5 countries in 2023 and up to 50 STAR centres by 2030. These STAR Centres are based in the beneficiary countries, and would be the hubs of capacity building activities in those countries.
Promoting institutional and regulatory support to help create the rules, regulations and institutions to deploy and upscale solar energy applications.
Implementing pilot projects in Small Island Developing States and the Least Developed Countries with a view to showcase the technological and business viability of these applications and identifying their social, economic and environmental benefits so that they are taken up as national programs.
The Minister pointed out that the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration states in Para 38(v) that G20 members “will pursue and encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally through existing targets and policies, as well as demonstrate similar ambition with respect to other zero and low-emission technologies, including abatement and removal technologies, in line with national circumstances by 2030”.
The Indian Government has taken several steps and initiatives to promote and accelerate renewable energy capacity in the country with the target to achieve 500 GW of installed electric capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.Some of major steps taken are as follows:
Announcement of structured bidding trajectory to invite bids for 50 GW of renewable energy capacity annually for the next five years i.e., from Financial Year 2023-24 till Financial Year 2027-28.
Declaration of trajectory for Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) up to the year 2030 vide notification dated 20th October, 2023.
Release of the Procedure for Implementation of Uniform Renewable Energy Tariff on 25th October 2023.
Setting up of Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Parks to provide land and transmission to RE developers on a plug and play basis.
Laying of new transmission lines and creating new sub-station capacity for evacuation of renewable power.
Waiver of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for inter-State sale of solar and wind power for projects to be commissioned by 30th June 2025.
Launch of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for High Efficiency Solar PV Modules to strengthen local manufacturing.
Launch of the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an overarching objective of making India the Global Hub for production, usage and export of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives.
Permitting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100% under the automatic route.
Under existing bilateral Memorandum of Understandings and Agreements, the Indian Government has been in discussion with countries to collaborate efforts on multilateral platforms to support energy transition.
The Government is also engaging with countries at several other multilateral initiatives such as QUAD, IPEF, IRENA, COP28, CEM/MI etc.to support the energy transition efforts globally. Fiinews.com
