'One Sun, One World, One Grid' arriving

India is pushing to create a global solar grid. Can it happen?

 'One Sun, One World, One Grid' arriving

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• The story: India has been at the forefront of initiatives in the renewable energy domain. The idea of International Solar Alliance (ISA) took shape due to the combined efforts of India and France. Later, in 2018, India floated the idea of OSOWOG, during the first assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
• What is OSOWOG: The One Sun, One World, One Grid (OSOWOG), which the British call a Green Grid, has been pushed by PM and found a special mention in his Independence Day speech in 2021. It will be a trans-national electricity grid supplying solar power across the globe.

1. As per the draft plan prepared by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the ambitious OSOWOG will connect 140 countries through a common grid that will be used to transfer solar power.
2. The vision is the OSOWOG mantra that says: “the Sun never sets”. It remains a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time.
3. With India at the fulcrum, the solar spectrum can easily be divided into two broad zones, which is the far East which would include countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia and far West which would cover the Middle East and Africa Region.
4. The OSOWOG is planned to be completed in three phases. The first phase will entail interconnectivity within the Asian continent; the second phase will add Africa and the third phase will globalise the whole project. It has been taken up under the technical assistance programme of the World Bank.
5. Some claim that the OSOWOG is India's counter to China's Belt and Road initiative.

• COP26 coming: The COP26 UN climate change conference, from 1 November to 12 November at Scotland's Glasgow, will see India and the United Kingdom announce the joint declaration on OSOWOG.
• Why needed: With OSOWOG, India is planning to take a leadership position, as it's a grand project of global scale. A new energy sector paradigm is needed as the world faces a huge inflexion point in electricity generation and consumption.

1. Potential benefits include widespread scale up in energy access, abatement in carbon emissions, lower cost and improved livelihoods.
2. Potential problems include technology challenges, and range of financial benefits. The mechanism of cost-sharing will be challenging, given the varied priorities of participating countries depending on their socio-economic orders. The strategic benefits of having a single grid may simply be obliterated due to sudden geopolitical problems arising at some place.
3. Serious disruptions may happen for essential servies like defence and hospitals, etc., as they will be exposed to this common grid. Any tricky bilateral /multilateral issue can potentially affect multiple continents and countries. That is why participation is poor so far.
4. Technically, there are differences in voltage, frequency and specifications of the grid in most regions. Maintaining grid stability with just renewable generation would be technically difficult.

• How to make it happen: India will need a strong coalition of international partners to realise this vision. India's plan to have an inter-continent power infrastructure is a fairly new idea. The Green Grids Initiative is to help achieve the pace and scale of reforms to infrastructure and market structures needed to underpin the global energy transition. It will allow national renewable energy management centres in India to grow as regional and global management centres.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain what three essential precautions can make the OSOWOG vision successful. (2) What are the challenges foreseen in trying to build a global solar energy grid? Explain.

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