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How a global solar alliance can help developing countries

By ucftxml, on 7 December 2015

Throughout COP21 our staff and students will be blogging on climate change and sustainability.

This blog was previously published as an article for The Conversation on December 4th 2015 

The International Solar Alliance announced by India at the Paris climate conference invites together 120 countries to support the expansion of solar technologies in the developing world.

The cost of solar cells has decreased spectacularly over the past four decades, and the trend seems likely to continue. Solar energy has moved from a niche market for providing power in remote places (at the very beginning in 1958 to space satellites) to a mainstream technology which feeds into the national grid.

SolarGIS-Solar-map-World-map-en

Most developing countries benefit from high solar radiation. Souce: SolarGIS (c) 2015 GeoModel Solar

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