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In 2014,
India made a commitment
to install 100 gigawatts
of solar power by 2022.
At the time that it made this commitment,
it had an installed capacity
of three gigawatts of solar power,
so it was basically committing to doubling
its solar capacity every 18 months.
The audacity of this commitment
left the world divided.
The world's third-largest energy consumer
and second-largest coal consumer
was betting on solar.
And while many thought
that this goal was unrealistic
and overly ambitious,
others, like me, thought
it was all very exciting
and potentially
the opportunity of a lifetime.
As it turns out, I was right.
And India reached this milestone
in February 2025,
becoming one of the first few countries
in the world to do so,
and simultaneously unlocking
90 billion dollars in investment
and creating 300,000 new solar jobs.
(Applause)
For India, the solar revolution
has become something of a gift
that keeps on giving.
It has catapulted India
into a global climate leader,
while boosting power supply in the country
to end blackouts and brownouts
for local communities.
This is why it is committed to keep going.
It is now working on a goal
of 500 gigawatts of clean power by 2030,
which basically means that in 2030,
every second electron used in India,
be it in a household,
in industry or in transport,
would come from a clean power source.
(Applause)
To meet this solar revolution
has been a beacon of hope,
not just for the scale of the ambition,
but for the motivation behind it.
India did not bet on solar
for ideological reasons.
It bet on solar for economic ones.
It was early to see
what most of the world
can see clearly today.
That the transition to renewable
energy is good economics.
This has been my primary takeaway
from the work that I've done
with a range of countries
over the last 15 years.
I've spent much of that time
trying to answer a question
that many of you
may be thinking about right now,
which is: The commitments
are all well and good,
but how are we going to pay for it?
Especially in developing countries
where the cost of finance
continues to be high,
where as much as 70 percent of the cost
of a single solar electron
could be from the cost of capital.
And unsurprisingly,
the answer is through innovation.
And while technology innovation
has rapidly brought down
the price of solar energy,
making it the cheapest
source of electricity
in every single market in the world,
technology innovation
alone is not getting it done.
India's solar story is as much
a story about business models
and market design
as it is about technology.
For instance, when India
first made this commitment,
the private sector responded
with eagerness.
Developers and manufacturers
came readily to India's solar party,
but capital remained elusive.
Much of this power
that India wanted to deploy
would have to be bought
by its electricity utilities.
And these electricity utilities
have chronically been
in very bad financial health.
So adding large shares of variable solar,
which at the time was still
a bit more expensive, into their mix,
was not going to make
their life any easier.
And so they delayed payments
to solar developers,
putting many of them out of business
and spooking investors.
This was not a great look for a country
that was trying to raise
100 billion dollars of solar investment.
But the government experimented.
It worked with state governments
around the country
to get them to demand solar power
from their electricity utilities.
It worked with other large
consumers, like the railways,
to get them to act as anchor customers
for the development of new solar parks.
And finally, it worked
with development partners
to make sure that the energy
infrastructure was fortified
so that more solar energy
could be integrated into the grid.
This did not solve all of the problems
of India's electricity utilities,
but it did make sure that these utilities
paid their solar bills on time.
And that was enough to get capital
to also come to India's solar party.
So this very exciting revolution
was really built on the back
of some quite boring things.
Things like plans and policies
and business models.
But this is not unique to India.
A lot of examples from around the world
of countries using some
of these same boring tools
to unlock large solar gains
has given me this belief
that the road from ambition to action
can be distilled down
into three distinct levels.
To me, these are planning,
innovation and localization.
Plans are really what
make commitments real.
A really good example of this
is the work that we
at Sustainable Energy For All
have done with the government of Ghana.
Ghana already had a net-zero commitment
to get to net zero by 2070.
But it was in the making of this plan
that they were able
to look at the evidence,
as well as look at the trade offs
and not just develop a how-to guide,
but actually plan to get
to this net zero now by 2060.
But plans have to be put into motion.
And this is where innovation comes in.
And developing countries
are hotbeds for innovation.
For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa,
where the scaling of small solar
solutions is curtailed
not just by their financial viability,
but also by quality concerns,
an innovative results-based
financing mechanism
that structures the payment
partly at the start of a project
and partly at the end of a project,
once quality checks have been made,
addresses both these risks.
One such facility leveraged
13.5 million dollars
to unlock 55,000 new connections
across five countries.
And finally, the energy transition
is a story about creating
value and prosperity.
And this is where localization
becomes really important.
For example, here in Kenya,
a renewable energy powerhouse,
where 90 percent of its power
already comes from clean energy sources,
putting it well on its way
to reach its goal
of 100 percent clean power by 2030.
But in this pursuit,
Kenya imported 50 million dollars'
worth of solar panels
in a single year alone.
This is money it sent out of the country,
but the government is having
none of it anymore.
It is now developing
special manufacturing zones
that will not just keep
this money in the country,
but also create jobs for local Kenyans.
(Applause)
These are not isolated examples.
These are evidence that the energy
transition is already underway.
That the energy
transition is irreversible,
and that it's being driven
by developing countries.
Eighty-four percent
of the world's population
lives in a developing country.
That is four out of every five
people in this world
live in a developing country.
These are countries in motion.
They need more energy
to meet unmet demand,
to power their economies
and to create jobs for their youth.
The choices that they make
to meet this demand,
the fuels that they decide to use,
will determine what the emissions
of the future look like.
But they're already choosing
renewable energy.
And they're choosing renewables
because renewables is good economics.
And they now know that it
offers them opportunities for growth,
development and prosperity.
It is now up to all of us
to enable these countries at scale,
using the seemingly
boring tools of planning,
of market design and of capacity building
to keep this momentum up.
Because the time is right
and we can't stop now.
Thank you.
(Applause)
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