NEWS
India to host the mega
inaugural International
Solar Alliance Summit
India will host the mega inaugural International Solar
Alliance Summit in Delhi on March 11, 2018 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.
The big draw at the summit will be the French President
Emanuel Macron, who will be on a state visit to India
coinciding with the event, which his country is co-
sponsoring
The summit or mega founding conference comes just
over two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi first
proposed the initiative.
The International Solar Alliance is a treaty based
international inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar
resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the
tropics of Cancer and Capricorn
Many countries face gaps in the potential solar energy
manufacturing eco-system. Absence of universal energy
access, energy equity and affordability are issues common
to most of the solar resource rich countries. International
Solar Alliance (ISA) is conceived as a coalition of solar
resource rich countries to address their special energy
needs and will provide a platform to collaborate on
addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed
approach.
The secretariat is based in Gurgaon, where PM Modi
and then French President Francois Hollande laid the
foundation stone in 2016.
www.isolaralliance.org
8
Global MDA Journal may 2018
BASF launches resource
saving refinish product line
BASF’s Coatings division has launched new product lines in
Europe for its Glasurit® and R-M® refinish paint brands that
make automotive refinishing more sustainable. They are the
world’s first refinish products manufactured according to the
certified biomass balance approach, therefore contributing
to reduce CO2 emissions.
For the biomass balance approach, parts of the fossil
resources are replaced by renewable resources, such as
bio-naphtha or biogas from organic waste or vegetable oils,
already at the beginning of the production process. This share
of biomass is mathematically allocated to the new product
line for automotive refinish products according to a method
certified by the German Technical Supervisory Association
TÜV SÜD. By applying this calculative model, 100% of the
fossil resources can be replaced with renewable resources.
The biomass balance approach already permits renewable
resources to be used at the start of chemical production.
This allows BASF to process the products obtained via this
process in the usual manner and use them to manufacture
refinish products. By developing the new product line, BASF
is offering body shops the opportunity to stand out from the
competition and directly influence the way they save CO2 and
in so doing, make a conscious contribution to environmental
protection.
The biomass balance approach, used by various BASF
divisions, is comparable to the green energy tariff, since
the power that comes from the socket is not necessarily
generated from renewable sources. What is much more
important is that the total proportion of renewable sources
in the system adds up and that it is mathematically correctly
allocated to the certified commercial products. If demand
increases, this proportion must be increased accordingly.
TÜV SÜD continuously monitors whether BASF actually uses
this share in renewable resources in the production Verbund
and that it allocates it correctly to the certified products.
www.basf-coatings.com