PM Narendra Modi, Emmanuel Macron to be at Solar Alliance founding on 8 December

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will be present at the founding ceremony of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) due to take place here on 8 December, the government said on 12 October.

The institutionalisation of the Gurugram-headquartered ISA, an Indo-French initiative started in 2015 as an inter-governmental agency, will be the highlight of the second global renewable energy investors meet and expo -- RE-INVEST 2017 -- to be organised here by the New and Renewable Energy Ministry over December 7 to 9, Power Minister R.K. Singh told reporters here.

The formal founding of the ISA follows ratification of membership by the minimum 15 member states, for the body which has a prospective membership of 125 countries.

The Pacific island Kiribati on Thursday became the 41st member to join the ISA, with a government minister from the country signing the accession papers here at the event.

Around 125 ministerial delegations are expected to attend RE-INVEST 2017, where the government aims to leverage India's unique position as both a major consumer and manufacturer of renewable energy to attract investment.

The conference-cum-exhibition plans to consolidate on the gains of the previous one which yielded investment commitments of Rs 4 lakh crore for creating clean energy capacity of 78,000 MW, officials here said.

The Indian government has set a target of 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022.

-IANS