International Solar Alliance (ISA) - an alliance of more than 120 countries (most of them being sunshine countries, which come either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn) – is planning to come out with a global tender for price discovery of 5 lakhs solar pumps before December and presumed prices will come down of the solar pumps. This was informed by Upendra Tripathy, Director General, ISA, at a recently held Assocham event in New Delhi.

“International Solar Alliance (ISA) to bring out a tender for 5 lakh solar pumps for farmers across the world. ISA is proposing to set up a USD 300 billion fund for initiatives in solar energy sector. By 2030 ISA aim to bring USD 1,000 billion investment into solar energy sector. ISA is also trying to persuade all multilateral banks to ensure 15 per cent of this credit portfolio goes to the installation of solar energy," said Tripathy.

ISA is set to give a big push to solar water pumps and India is expected to play a leadership role.

While addressing the event, S C Tripathi, former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Chief Petron, IASRD, said, "India needs to develop competitive PV module manufacturing capabilities."

Deepak Gupta, Former Secretary, MNRE, added, “We need several small 50 MW solar plants rather than a large 500 MW plants. By 2035 solar energy will be cheaper than any other form of energy.”