"The reason for this is that there are about 733 million people in the world who don't have access to electricity. Well, ISA believes that its mission is to ensure that these people have access to electricity using renewable energy, especially solar energy, because it is the best as it is available for a longer period of time both in terms of season as well as hours per day," Singh, who is also the President of ISA, added.
Program for 'Viability Gap Funding'
"This has been done with the intention of attracting investment to the other developing countries, as it has come to India, because no country has enough money to build all the capacity on its own and needs private investment to ensure universal access to electricity," said Singh.
"In India, Gujarat has done tremendously well in terms of solar energy, but we need to make sure that people in other states are also excited about this idea. The efficiency may be a bit high or low, as some states have good installations while others have less, but overall rooftop is viable, especially if we give subsidies for residential installations," says Bhalla.
"If you see the rooftop solar panels last for 25 years, and that is just an estimate because it could last even more. So after seven years to 25-30 years, it's absolutely free except for simple maintenance costs or maybe the inverter needs to be changed," Bhalla explained.
"The Railway Energy Management Company (REMC) has already invited bids from four companies to supply 24-hour renewable energy to the Indian Railways at rates ranging from INR 3.99 to INR 4.27 per kilowatt-hour. We are looking at expanding this because there is a project that will require 818 terawatt hours of additional power by 2030. This is now possible," he said.