ShareSolar energy and solar cooling in India
During the Conference of Parties, which took place in Paris in 2015 (COP21), the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was launched by the French president and the Indian Prime Minister. The ISA aims to bring together 121 countries with strong sunshine situated between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn – which represent 73% of the world’s population – to provide a collective response to the main common obstacles to the massive deployment of solar energy in terms of technology, finance and capacity [Source].The Alliance aims to implement financial instruments to mobilise over USD 1 trillion in solar energy investment by 2030. [...].
On March 11, 2018, New Delhi hosted the first ISA summit, and this provided an opportunity to highlight a few figures on solar energy in India.
For instance, according to recent articles, India aimed to achieve 20 GW solar capacity in 2022, and it already achieved this goal at the beginning of 2018 [...]. A new target is now to be achieved by 2022: reaching 100 GW solar capacity. Moreover, new power capacity additions in India during the calendar year 2017 reached around 9.6 GW and accounted for 45 percent of total capacity additions.
This context also has an impact on solar cooling, since solar energy is an interesting option to power, for instance, cold storage facilities. In the Indian state Uttar Pradesh, 10 cold storage facilities should soon be equipped with solar panels from 100 kilowatt peak1 (kWp) to 200 kWp, accumulating to 1.5 megawatt peak (MWp). The director of the company executing the order expects to install 10 MWp rooftop solar installations in cold chains PAN2 India before 2019.
For further information on solar cooling, the 34th IIR Informatory Note on Solar Cooling is available for free in English and in French.
1 kWp: kilowatt peak corresponds to the maximum power of a photovoltaic installation (for example at noon on a sunny day).
2 PAN: Presence Accross Nation, meaning the whole country.