India and the United Kingdom (UK) will launch “Green Grids Initiative”, a solar grid project to connect countries in different parts of the globe at the upcoming United Nations climate talks to be held in Glasgow, Scotland. The project is being initiated as a part of the International Solar Alliance launched by India and France at Paris Climate Conference, 2015.
Ajay Mathur, the director-general of the International Solar Alliance said that “the new project is based on the idea that the sun is always shining in some part of the world, and the project aims to create a global grid will transfer the sun’s power from one place to another”.
Although solar energy is becoming cheaper than other alternatives, but countries cannot rely on it at night. Countries like India cannot rely on solar energy completely as the demand for power is soaring. Mathur further added that “when it is dark in East Asia, it’s still light in India… If there was a cable between India and east Asia, that solar electricity could be provided to east Asia”.
The project shall aim to begin a “coalition of the willing’, wherein two countries shall mutually benefit from the transfer of solar power. Estimates show that solar power will become as cheap as power from fossil fuel in the upcoming three years. Thus, making it easier to build new solar power plants and storage facilities.