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The United Kingdom (UK) and India have jointly launched the Green Grids Initiative – One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG) project at the Glasgow climate summit on Monday.
The GGI–OSOWOG project was announced at COP26 by summit host Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a press statement by the Climate Parliament said.
It said the project involves the construction of large solar power stations and windfarms in the best locations, linked together by continental-scale grids crossing national borders. It will be led by a Ministerial Steering Group, which includes France, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, and will also have representatives from Africa, the Gulf, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
In the presence of other heads of government including US President Biden, the two Prime Ministers presented a One Sun Declaration, endorsed by more than 80 countries, setting out the group’s aims.
In their One Sun Declaration, the national leaders said: "all the energy humanity uses in a year is equal to the energy that reaches the earth from the sun in a single hour. The sun never sets – every hour, half the planet is bathed in sunshine. By trading energy from sun, wind and water across borders, we can deliver more than enough clean energy to meet the needs of everyone on earth."
To make this possible, they say, "we need new transmission lines crossing frontiers and connecting different time zones, creating a global ecosystem of interconnected renewables that are shared for mutual benefit." The organisers point out that wind power must be harnessed over a wide area to provide a reliable energy supply, and the “solar day” can be lengthened for everyone by connecting different time zones.
In addition to large-scale solar and wind power connected through international grids, the One Sun Declaration highlights the need for investment in solar minigrids for remote villages, smart charging for electric vehicles to help balance green grids, and new financial instruments to attract low-cost capital into clean energy.
The Declaration concludes, "Realising One Sun One World One Grid through interconnected green grids can be transformational, enabling all of us to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement to prevent dangerous climate change, to accelerate the clean energy transition, and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals."
"By combining rooftop solar with desert solar power stations, plus offshore wind farms and hydropower, we can easily generate more than enough renewable energy to power the world. But only if we build the right grids," said Nicholas Dunlop, Secretary-General of the Climate Parliament. "Thanks to the UK COP26 Presidency taking up the project, and Prime Minister Modi's personal interest, we’ve begun to assemble a powerful coalition which could get those grids and power stations built faster than ever."
Former British environment minister Barry Gardiner MP said: “in an interconnected world it makes no sense that governments continue to fixate on energy independence. A global green grid will make it possible for power generated anywhere to be utilised everywhere. It is cooperation on a global scale to utilise the renewable resources of water, wind and sun and to trade each country’s surplus to where it is required. This is an international political vision equal to the climate challenge we face.”
"I look forward to all of us working together in helping achieve a 1000 gigwatts of solar energy, in achieving investments of $1,000 billion, carbon savings of a 1000 million tonnes and enabling 1000 million people at the bottom of the pyramid to have access to clean energy," ISA Director General Ajay Mathur said in a video posted on ISA's twitter account on Monday.
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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