First World Solar Technology Summit begins: All you need to know!

The first-ever World Solar Technology Summit began on September 8. 2020. The summit is being organised by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on a virtual platform. Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan addressed the inaugural session as well as the valedictory session of the First World Solar Technology Summit.

The first World Solar Technology Summit aims to focus on state-of-the-art technologies and next-generation technologies that will help boost efforts towards harnessing solar energy more efficiently. The virtual summit will see participation from over 26000 participants from 149 countries across the world. 

Key Highlights 

• The first World Solar Technology Summit is expected to see participation from ministers from member countries from across all ISA regions.

• Besides this, Nobel Prize Winner Dr. M Stanley Whittingham will be presenting the keynote address during the inaugural ceremony. Dr. Whittingham was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with John B Goodenough & Akira Yoshino in 2019 for the revolutionary discovery of lithium-ion batteries.

• The ISA would also be launching the ISA Journal on Solar Energy (I JOSE) on the occasion that would help authors from across the globe to publish their articles on solar energy.

• The articles in the journal would be reviewed by global experts. They would be reaching the Member nations through ISA’s STAR (Solar Technology and Application Resource centers) centres and NFPs (National Focal points). 

• The summit would see deliberations on low cost, innovative and affordable solar technologies by high-level dignitaries from the scientific research and development world. 

• Several senior government functionaries and heads of global corporations, financial and multilateral institutions, think tanks, civil society and foundations are expected to be present during the inaugural session. 

• There will also be a CEO conclave where CEOs of top global corporations that have made pathbreaking progress in implementing and scaling up solar technologies will take part.

• There will be four technical sessions that will be available in different languages including English, Spanish, French and Arabic. The sessions will see leading companies and research organisations from around the world present their work and deliberate on latest trends in solar technologies.