Event Detail

Women in Renewable Energy– Call for Action

17^th February 2022, 14:00-16:00 (IST), Virtual

Concept Note

There is a clear link between a nation’s progress and women’s economic empowerment and well-being. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and International Solar Alliance (ISA) have been deliberating on ways and means to enhance employment opportunities for women in the Renewable Energy sector, and on improving their socio-economic status through focused design and deployment of decentralized RE applications, particularly in the rural areas of the country. These deliberations were initiated at the webinar ‘Women in Renewable Energy and Sustainability, jointly hosted by the ISA and MNRE on 7 July 2021, as part of the UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy. There was representation from UN Women, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), EESL Convergence, Kinetic Green, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Barefoot College, Frontier Markets, and Skill Council for Green Jobs. Further to this, at the Fourth Assembly of the ISA on 21 October 2021, the ISA and UNEP organized a discussion on Enhancing the Capacity of Women to Support Energy Transition.

Following Key points emerged from the two discussions:

• Short-term to medium-term planning is required to initiate programmatic and systemic interventions for encouraging women's participation in the RE sector.
• Collaborations are needed for fostering green skilling programs for women and finding a better way to build successful pathways for their sustainable livelihoods.
• There is a need for a study for the aggregation of gender-based empirical data related to the energy sector so that interventions can be designed for the benefit of women.
• National Banks should find ways for a just assessment of the creditworthiness of women who need financial assistance in the Renewable Energy Sector.
• Best practices should be shared amongst relevant stakeholders at international, national, and sub-national levels. Also, a charter of activities should be drawn up in consultation with participating organizations.
• Impact investors should be mobilized- there is an investor consortium already in place with UNDP and NITI AAYOG where women entrepreneurs are invited to submit their business propositions. One-on-one pitching sessions can be facilitated to get funding in this regard.
• Round table discussions should be convened to build technical knowledge among small and medium enterprises on how to run RE businesses.
• ISA’s role in sharing technology and best practices with other member countries as well as leveraging the expertise of member states should be strengthened.
• Impact Assessment

The above points reaffirm that for inclusive energy transition, providing institutional support to women at the local level, adequate capacity building programs in RE, mentoring opportunities to lead businesses, tailored financial mechanisms for assistance to women RE entrepreneurs, and knowledge sharing by actors should be the priorities of the decision-makers.

We believe that now is the time for concrete action on the recommendations. The session “Women in RE – Call for Action,” during the RE Week being organized as a part of Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav commemoration on 17 February 2022 is formulated keeping this need in mind. While the responsibility for action is a shared one between MNRE, ISA, Industry, and NGOs, the major part of action would lie with the Industry. We have therefore included companies and associations in the RE sector in the proposed deliberations. The invitation to the participants will be accompanied by a clear articulation of the expectations from them. We have made effort to make this webinar different from others-  RE women entrepreneurs’  will be sharing their experiences with the audience in the first half of the session followed by the response to call for action by the stakeholders. A joint action agenda will be released by the participating institutions at the end of the discussion laying the future course of action. We also envisage setting up an institutional mechanism with representation from stakeholders for taking the action forward and monitoring progress in this regard.

Each of the four stakeholders has a major role to play in the task before us. MNRE could contribute through policy and designing of Scheme at a later stage and also coordinate with the industry. NGOs would bring valuable real-life experience and challenges from the field that need to be addressed. This could feed both into the designing of a scheme at a later stage and also in the design and deployment of tailored solutions for women. The industry clearly will act as an employer of women but could contribute to the development of decentralized customized RE products for women. ISA could provide the necessary support to scale up efforts for women entrepreneurs in Member countries by providing a strong platform to diverse stakeholders for knowledge sharing.

Tentative Agenda

WOMEN IN RENEWABLE ENERGY: CALL TO ACTION

17/02/2022, 14:00 – 16:00 HRS (IST)

Duration 2 Hours, Mode: Virtual

Webinar on Role of ISA in facilitating Energy Transition in Member Countries

 17 Feb 2022, 16 00 - 17 40 PM (IST), Virtual

Concept Note

The ISA was conceived as a joint effort by India and France to mobilize efforts against climate change through the deployment of solar energy solutions. The ISA aims to mobilize knowledge, technical assistance, and investments towards helping member countries achieve their developmental goals in a sustainable way through the deployment of solar energy. Countries with similar contexts can gain access through ISA to a range of solutions to realize their self-determined strategy for development. Through technical cooperation and knowledge transfer, countries of the global South can leapfrog over a few intermediate stages of development. The International Solar Alliance (ISA), headquartered in India, recognizes the value of national innovations and their potential to support the energy transition.

India is celebrating ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture, and achievements. The country has much to be proud of, particularly its rapid socio-economic development in recent times. As it continues on the path of accelerated economic growth and uplift of the living standards of its people, it will be imperative to ensure the availability of affordable and reliable energy and quality energy services in the country.

Sustainability and preservation of the environment have always been central pillars of India’s rich culture and traditions. These have found reflection in the policies of the government to promote Renewable Energy in recent years. The stellar growth of the Renewable energy sector in the past 7 years coupled with the achievement of providing universal electricity access is a testimony to the fact that the government is committed to fighting climate change and preserving the environment without compromising on rapid progress.  India has always set ambitious goals in RE. For example, it has announced the target of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil-based installed electricity capacity by 2030. The country’s achievements so far have been impressive. For example, it has added over 45 GW of solar energy capacity since 2015, with several more gigawatt (GW) worths of installations in the pipeline, including decentralized solar photovoltaic (PV) systems.

India’s RE journey in the past decade has been full of innovation and creativity in terms of business models, policy & regulatory interventions, and citizen-centric RE deployment. GoI’s initiatives like the KUSUM scheme for solar water pumps (2019) and the new policy on promoting decentralized renewable energy livelihood applications (2021) are pioneering and unparalleled globally. These and such programs provide opportunities for other countries to learn from India’s experience.  In fact, customer-centric innovations in technology, business, and payments can be found scattered across the developing world for e.g. the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) model in East Africa that allows for flexibility on loan installment and tenures, allowing consumers to choose based on their demand and capacity to pay.

While working towards creating a multi-stakeholder ecosystem were sovereign nations, multilateral organizations, industry, policymakers, and innovators come together to promote the common and shared goal of meeting energy demands in a secure and sustainable way, the ISA has developed nine programs on various solar applications. Scaling Solar for Agricultural Use and Solar Parks are two important programs amongst others. Under Solar Parks Programme, the ISA has endorsed NTPC Ltd as a PMC that could be engaged by ISA member countries to facilitate the development of grid-connected ground mounted/floating solar projects as per their needs. Eleven member countries with a targeted total capacity of about 3.0 GW have joined this program and projects in these countries are at various stages of implementation (Togo 285 MW, Mali 500 MW, Cuba 900 MW, Niger 50 MW, Paraguay 500 MW, and Malawi 100 MW.). Similarly, under the SSAU program, ISA has aggregated overwhelming demand for solar water pumps from twenty-two of its Member Countries. In light of this, ISA and UNDP have developed a multi-country model for the deployment of solar water pumps. India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) Facility at the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) will provide financial support for the implementation of the pilot phase of the SSAAU in 10 ISA Member Countries. The pilot project aims to establish standardized systems for international procurement and diversified pathways for national deployment, to enable further scale-up within the country.

The role of India has been critical in taking these programs forward. ISA and GOI have collaborated from time to time and discussed how best ideas can be exchanged between India and Member countries to facilitate Energy Transition. The webinar ‘Role of ISA in facilitating Energy Transition’ is a step forward to discuss the ongoing efforts and plan further on the integration of renewable and solar energy into ISA member countries’ energy plans.

Provisional Agenda*

Webinar on ‘Role of ISA in facilitating Energy Transition, 17 Feb 2022, 16 00- 17 40 PM (IST)

Webinar on

“Role of clean-tech start-ups/climate entrepreneur in providing clean and affordable energy”

Date:  Thursday, 17th February 2022 Time:   17:45–19:15 hrs, Virtual

Concept Note

In line with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s announcement in the COP-26 at Glasgow, the Government is committed to achieving 500 GW of installed power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2030. The Government has taken many initiatives to promote renewable energy in the country and in the last seven years, India has made increasingly focused efforts to implement the energy transition through citizen-centric energy policies and programs.

The RE sector has ample opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs in the country. For example, in the solar energy sector, the opportunities include EPC work, O&M work, cleaning of solar panels, installation of solar rooftops, coordination for testing of solar equipment, service provider off-grid solar rooftop, installation of solar water pumps, RESCO model installations, solar BIPVs, skill development, consultancy work, and new innovative product development. Similar opportunities are also available in the wind, biomass, small hydro, and waste to energy sectors. With innovative and creative solutions, the start-ups can play a significant role in fulfilling the goals of clean and affordable energy.

Innovative companies are developing solutions to meet the urgent need for clean energy throughout India. There are three areas that entrepreneurs are mainly addressing: access to electricity, clean cooking, and the transition to renewables. India is vulnerable to climate change, and significant action is needed to mitigate the effects of pollution. The opportunity to scale up clean energy technologies, considering the high stakes and potential for significant growth solutions is immense.

This webinar will include the following discussion points which would define the role of start-ups and their upcoming solutions:

1. Invention-based enterprises provide physical solutions with transformative impact and are the dominant business in the clean energy sector. These companies conduct research and development (R&D) and manufacture at least one physical component in which the innovation is unique enough to be patentable technologies.
2. Service companies are those whose primary innovation is not a physical product, including business process innovators and software firms. Service companies act as intermediaries to improve services or grid-level solutions and offer new solutions that facilitate access to products for end-users.
3. Support Ecosystem includes support organizations like MNRE, centers of excellence in leading R&D organizations, ATAL Innovation Mission and Department of Science & Technology, etc. which provides certain benefits to innovative clean energy companies.

 The government is giving special impetus to the growth of start-ups and entrepreneurship in the country. Several benefits are being provided to recognize start-ups under the Start-up India initiative like tax exemption, easy winding of companies, start-up patent application & IPR protection, self-certification to comply under environmental & labor laws, easier public procurement norms, SIDBI funds, applications for tenders, R&D facilities, tax-saving for investors, etc.

This webinar will focus to provide an overview of the resources and support structure available in the country at various levels for the start-ups operating in the renewable energy sector. This webinar is intended to come up with actionable guidance for entrepreneurs, investors, support organizations, donors, policymakers, and universities.

This special event will be chaired by Dr. Juzer Vasi, Professor Emeritus, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The participants will be from industry, start-up companies, academia, government officials, and other stakeholders of the renewable energy sector.