NEW DELHI : Germany has expressed interest in joining Gurugram-headquartered International Solar Alliance (ISA), said two people familiar with the matter. The move will add heft to the country’s credentials and the first treaty-based international government organization headquartered in India. “Germany is interested in joining the ISA and there have been meetings on the same," said one the people cited above, requesting anonymity.
It assumes significance, considering that Germany is a member of the P5+1 grouping, comprising five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US, and is one of the earliest green economy proponents.
Having resource-rich Germany onboard, will add strategic and financial weight to the multilateral organization co-founded by India and France. The initiative is being leveraged by India’s state-run organizations to set up solar projects in member nations.
Germany’s membership in the ISA will also help India’s ambitious cross-border power grid plan, the One Sun One World One Grid, which seeks to transfer solar power generated in one region to feed the electricity demands of others, as China attempts to co-opt countries into its One Belt One Road initiative.
In response to whether Germany would join the organization, an ISA spokesperson said, “we have no definite news."
Membership to the ISA was earlier limited to 121 countries, which were partially or entirely located within the tropics. This didn’t allow major solar energy economies such as Germany to join the alliance that is being increasingly seen as a foreign policy tool. The road ahead for Germany’s entry was cleared when the 30 ISA member countries ratified its framework agreement.
“Many countries were not happy with not being eligible to become ISA members. Even Germany, which actually led the world in solar energy wasn’t eligible," the first person said.
Germany plans to generate two-thirds of its energy needs from solar and wind power projects by 2030.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the initiative to set up the ISA, as many as 84 countries have signed the framework agreement, while 67 have ratified it.
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