conversation
Mr. Upendra Tripathy is currently the Interim DG of ISA. He was formerly the Secretary
of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in the Government of India. He is an Indian
Administrative Service (IAS) officer with more than 36 years of public service in various
departments including power, commerce, environment, transport and education. In April, 2009 he
was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration.
As India prepares to host the mega inaugural International Solar Alliance Summit in Delhi on
March 11 in the presence of more than a dozen leaders, including those from Asia, Pacific and South
America, to set the ball rolling for the country’s leadership in providing affordable renewable energy,
Global Mda Journal in an Exclusive Talk with
Mr. Upendra Tripathy - IDG-International Solar Alliance
Businesses around the world are taking decisive steps
to combat climate change. They also see commercial
value of investing in a low-carbon world. ISA has
been operational for about 2 years now and you have
observed this trend closely. Your take on this.
ISA plans to mobilize over 1 billion dollar of investment in the
solar sector. The present quantum of investment in renewables
is under 13.6 billion dollars. As per the Paris accord and also
SDG 7, the quantum of investment in renewables needs to
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be doubled if the targets set out in these agreements need
to be achieved. IRENA estimates that between 2016-2030
annual average investment of at least 770 billion dollars will
be needed between 2016 to 2030. ISA’s take is that same is
quite doable especially in Solar Energy. During the period
2010-2016 the total investment in solar energy sector is
around 286 billion dollars. This is the highest one amongst
all other sources of RE. The total installed capacity of Solar at
the end of 2016 is 303 GW. Also, out of the total investment
made during 2010-2016 in RE, 49% has gone to solar and the