New Delhi, May 26 (IANS): The International Solar Alliance (ISA), the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the World Bank organised a two-day strategic inception workshop on 'One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG)' wherein all the implementation partners came together and presented their roadmap for OSOWOG.
OSOWOG will be implemented in three phases - 'Phase I Pre-feasibility analysis' will include individual Countries' assessment, Demand Supply Scenario Projections, RE resource potential assessment and scenario assessment for net zero by 2050; Phase II will focus on key points indicating at political process to choose pilot projects, timeline in terms of commissioning the interlinks and lastly Phase III will be towards setting up the institutional framework including draft policy and regulatory papers.
In his keynote address, Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said, "I am glad that ISA has been involved in the project because it brings in, not only the expertise, but also an international perspective that the deal requires. Honourable Prime Minister of India's vision is before us and we should do everything possible to realize that vision. In fact, political leadership from other countries have also expressed faith in our vision of a solar grid interconnected with RE across countries."
Addressing the virtual workshop, Ajay Mathur, Director General- International Solar Alliance said, "The advantage of interconnecting regional grids to each other provides a huge opportunity in terms of availability of the solar electricity, especially at times in a place where solar electricity is not available from other regional grid where solar electricity is available."
Under the vision and ideation of the Government of India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the programme support agency, ISA is the nodal implementing agency & the World Bank is the strategic advisory and funding agency for the OSOWOG Initiative. They have a critical role to play in synergising over 140 countries, across the Far-East and the Far-West regions, to build consensus, launch energy policy imperatives and set up the framework for such a large-scale global cooperation. Other implementing partners include a Consortium led by Electricite de France to conduct the pre-feasibility study for OSOWOG, State Bank of India as the contracting agency and EY as the knowledge partner for this initiative.