During French President Macron's visit to India, from March 10 to 12, was held the Founding Summit of the International Solar Alliance, initiative set up during the COP21. Within this framework, Mr. Daniel Verwaerde signed two cooperation agreements related to solar energy.
The first agreement was signed with the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), one of the main Indian actors of applied research which is tasked with the testing of technological solutions that may be implemented in India in the solar energy field. The CEA and the NISE will implement research and technology transfers cooperations.
The second agreement was signed with Vikram Solar, a leading Indian industrial company whose activities cover development, manufacturing of photovoltaic cells, installation and operation of solar plants. The partnership with the CEA will focus on the development of various disruptive technologies including testing of solar modules manufactured by Vikram Solar based on CEA technology, improvement of photovoltaic cells efficiency, optimization of the use of batteries in electric vehicules...
The signing of these two agreements is a milestone in the long-term cooperation between the CEA's Division of Technological Research and Indian stakeholders in the field of renewable energies.
As India has the ambition to add an installed capacity of 100 GWe of solar energy by 2022, the CEA whishes to become a major partner in research and for implementing technological innovations notably developped by the National Solar Energy Institute (CEA/INES, located in France near Chambery).
The exhibition area presenting solar energy technologies developped by the CEA and partner companies, was visited by Jean-Yves Le Drian, minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, and Segolene Royal, Special Envoy for implementation of the International Solar Alliance. CEA experts notably presented to them the first high efficiency solar panel manufactured in India by Vikram Solar with photovoltaic cells provided by the CEA.
International Solar Alliance :
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was set up during the COP21 by Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi and French President François Hollande. Open for signature and ratification during the COP22 (November 2016), the ISA framework agreement aims at bringing together all 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn in order to massively scale-up solar energy deployment. Since December 6th, 2017, the ISA is an international organization based in New Delhi. It aims to attract over 850. Md € of public and private investment by 2030. http://isolaralliance.org/