One Sun One World One Grid: An Opportunity to Build a Better and Cleaner World

In October 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the idea of cross-border solar connectivity with a vision of ‘One Sun One World One Grid’. Though the idea looks ambitious, if executed well, it could change the way electricity is traded between countries.

India has one of the world’s biggest working synchronous grids, which was earlier distributed into five regional grids, and in the year 2014 India combined its southern network to form one large synchronous grid. This resulted in electricity supply in areas where there was a shortage and also helped in reducing electricity charges which had been driven up by transmission restrictions. The grid can now be extended to other countries by building a system of interconnected renewable energy sources that can be easily shared.

Further, India is already transmitting power to its neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. High-capacity transmission lines are being built to help the trade of more power with these countries. Different countries are enriched with different natural resources and trading electricity has helped to bring down the cost of power and decreased the burden of importing fossil fuels.

India is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels. Import costs have declined of late because of a steep decline in global prices. But as the world economy recovers, global oil prices will pick up and increase the burden for India and other countries that rely on imports to meet their energy needs.

One Sun One World One Grid can help countries make the best use of their diverse natural resources and take benefit of time differences to best use regular and low-cost solar energy. This cooperation requires market tools sending price signals that warrant the cost of building transmission infrastructure and renewable energy capacity. It would also help to provide grid stability and encourage the uptake of clean technologies.

The International Solar Alliance (ISA), India as its co-founder, can play an important role in helping other countries to deploy solar capacity by adopting business models rooftop solar and become import and export hubs at different times. By supporting grid synchronization and power markets that encourage infrastructure and capacity expansion, the One Sun One World One Grid initiative could help countries to achieve their emission reduction targets by reducing the use of fossil fuels and paving the way for more deflationary renewable energy.