Building Resilient Solar Supply Chains: A CEM-14/ MI-8 Event

ORF America’s Climate and Energy team co-hosted an event with the International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the 14th Clean Energy and 8th Mission Innovation Ministerial (CEM-14/ MI-8) in Goa, India. The event launched ISA’s report on Building Resilient Global Solar Supply Chains as part of the Transforming Solar Supply Chains CEM workstream. The authors at the Becquerel Institute presented the key findings and results and the International Solar Alliance discussed key steps to building solar supply chains in different regions of the world. During the second half of the event there was a panel discussion with perspectives from the United States, Australia, India, and Ethiopia on next steps for policy to promote regional supply chains, including cross-border trade, supportive manufacturing policy, technology transfer and standards harmonization. Participants highlighted the growing demand over the next for the solar sector, especially with growing demand for green hydrogen. Unfortunately, there are bottlenecks and supply is overwhelmingly concentrated in China.  Short term incentives for national schemes are essential for even geographical distribution of manufacturing. Representation from the Asian Development Bank noted the importance of solar in achieving net zero, financing rooftop solar solar initiatives in India, and translating and tweaking the success of best practices between countries. These types of financing have positive spillover effects, attracting the private sector. American representation highlighted recent legislation like the IRA that has combined domestic and foreign policy objectives to offer competitive incentive packages. The need to quantify resilience of global supply chains to ensure a just energy transition was pointed out as an important objective for all forthcoming initiatives.   

Speakers:

1. John Grimes, CEO, Smart Energy Council (Australia)

2. Professor Ardeshir Contractor, Ohio State University/IIT Bombay

3. Doug Arent, Executive Director, Strategic Public-Private Partnerships, NREL

4. Tewabech Workie, CEO, Ethiopian Solar Energy Development Association

5. Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, International Solar Alliance

6. Assem Kumar, Director, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India

7. Miriam K. D’Onofrio, Director of Energy Transition, National Security Council

8. Pradeep Thakaran, Director, Energy Transition, ADB 

9. Dr. Paolo Frankl, Head of the Renewable Energy Division, IEA

10. Alexander Hogeveen Rutter, Private Sector Specialist, ISA 

11. Rishabh Jain, Senior Program Lead, CEEW

12. Shayak Sengupta, Fellow Climate and Energy, ORF America 

Reception for the Clean Energy Community
ORF America’s Energy and Climate team also invited partners, and friends to welcome everyone to Goa, India, for the 14th Clean Energy Ministerial, the 8th Mission Innovation Ministerial (CEM-14/MI-8), and the G20 Energy Ministerial. Attendees included representatives from the public and private sectors and civil society: the Smart Energy Council Australia, Sustainable Energy  for All, National Solar Energy Federation of India, the US India Business Council (USIBC), CSTEP, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), SED Fund, Institute for Energy and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), CSIS, Climate Works, World Resource Institute (WRI), Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW), Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIIF), LanzaTech, India Climate Collaborative, Climate Trends, and many other important stakeholders.