ISA offers to invest in the desert: “Solar energy is a gold mine”
As part of the info tour in India, ORIENT met with representatives of the International Solar Alliance (ISA). Board members spoke about the organization’s activities and prospects for cooperation with Turkmenistan.
- The climate of Turkmenistan is very similar to the Indian one. Desert, heat, temperature drops. And what can we offer to Turkmenistan? Invest in the desert. Because the desert is also a resource, a huge source of solar energy. And solar energy is a goldmine, says ISA CEO Upend Tripathi.
The main goal of ISA today is to make solar technologies cheaper than energy production from non-renewable sources. For this, member countries invest in green research. In this they are supported by the UN, the EBRD, and many other international organizations.
- We understand that while the equipment for "green" energy is too expensive - it is more expensive than conventional technologies, which makes it unprofitable. Here we need to get into a certain vicious circle. The more countries use solar technology, the cheaper they become and the wider they get. India, along with market forwards - China, Japan, France - is working on it. And we are looking for new partners, especially in Central Asia,” Tripathi added.
ISA looks at environmental issues from the perspective of big business, and therefore focuses on the financial benefits of the introduction of environmentally friendly technologies in production:
- Cheap green technologies are a direct benefit to both the budget and the environment. Everybody wins using them. No need to deal with the effects of oil spills, build pipelines, install special filters in factories, pay for waste disposal.
Of course, each technology requires adaptation to the climatic conditions of the country in which it is applied. ISA offers research institutes of Turkmenistan to work out the issue of creating their own solar panels - resistant to high temperatures and dust, made entirely or at least partially from local raw materials.
Tomorrow, as part of the info-tour, journalists will visit the medical institutions of India and the holy saints of the Indian cinema world - the area-city of Noida, where the headquarters of broadcasters, numerous studios and the Asian Academy of Film and Television are located.
Suleyman CHARYEV
