SDG News’ Heeta Lakhani interviews International Solar Alliance Director General Ashish Khanna on new solar platforms, global procurement for SIDS, risk guarantees for mini-grids, and the push to move the world from pilots to action.
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was born at a COP ten years ago in Paris, out of a sense that the world needed a dedicated institution to rally countries, multilateral banks and the private sector around a more ambitious solar agenda. Speaking with SDG News live at COP30 in Belém, Director General Ashish Khanna set out how ISA now sees its role: not just as a convener, but as a builder of platforms that can deliver affordable solar and storage to the countries that have seen the fewest benefits so far.
ISA is today a treaty-based organisation with 125 member countries, more than 100 private sector partners, and over 50 multilateral banks and institutions engaged in its work. Its core objective, Khanna said, is to help countries “get as much of solar, but also storage and all new technologies, at the cheapest possible price,” with a particular focus on Africa and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Ashish Khanna brings his own experience from seven years in the private sector and around twenty years at the World Bank across South Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. He took over as Director General in March, returning to India with a brief to turn ISA’s accumulated experience into implementation at scale.
From pilots to platforms
Asked what comes next for ISA, Khanna described a strategic shift.
“Our strategy right now is to go from pilots to platforms, or ambition to action,” he said. The goal is to move beyond repeatedly describing what needs to happen and instead focus on how it will actually be done.
That “how” now rests on a suite of platforms designed to aggregate demand, cut costs and crowd in private capital.
One major effort is a SIDS platform that brings together around 186 countries from the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean into a joint digital procurement arrangement for solar and storage. For many small islands, he noted, 80–85% of their energy still comes from diesel, costing about 10% of GDP — roughly four times their education budgets. On their own, they cannot secure the prices and investment terms they need. ISA’s role is to bundle their demand, provide technical expertise and work with partners such as the World Bank Group so that private investors see viable projects rather than isolated, high-risk deals.
A second pillar is the Global Solar Facility, which includes an Africa Solar Facility aimed at decentralised renewable energy. Here, ISA is focused on solutions like solar water pumps and mini-grids. For this market segment, Khanna said, the priority is to ensure that private companies see these projects as “a good investment, not a risky investment.” ISA does that by providing risk guarantees so capital can start flowing; once the market reaches scale, those guarantees can be reduced or phased out.
ISA is also advancing the One Sun One World One Grid concept: a long-term effort to explore how continents might be connected so that solar-generated electricity can be traded across time zones — from places where it is daylight to those where it is dark.
A fourth area is capacity building and digitisation, which Ashish Khanna framed as the intersection of artificial intelligence and clean energy. ISA is working with 17 countries and what he described as a “global Silicon Valley for solar” to knit together digital tools, AI applications and training so countries can plan, manage and monitor their solar systems more effectively.
Sunrise after sunset: building circularity into solar
To manage the full life cycle of solar projects, ISA is launching a new global activity platform called SUNRISE. Khanna explained that when a solar PV and battery project reaches its sunset, up to 98% of the rare earth metals can be recovered and used to start a new project.
“That is why we call it SUNRISE,” he said. “Just as there is a sunset and a sunrise one after the other.”
The idea is to embed circular economy principles into solar expansion from the outset, so that end-of-life management and mineral recovery are treated as opportunities, not afterthoughts.
Working with governments, markets and the next generation
On how ISA operates, Khanna stressed that the organisation works simultaneously with governments, companies and non-state actors. It runs global platforms, regional initiatives, and country-level programmes depending on the context — for example, tailored work on SIDS, solar pumps or specific country partnership strategies.
He also underlined that ISA “seeks to invite all private sector partners, civil society organisations” and more engagement with youth, including through its digital channels. Inclusivity, in ISA’s view, is not only about which countries benefit, but also about who participates in shaping and implementing solutions.
The fastest-growing energy source — and who risks being left out
Ashish Khanna closed with a timeline that captures the pace of change in solar energy. It took the world 25 years to build the first 1,000 gigawatts of solar capacity. The next 1,000 GW were added in just two years, and global capacity is projected to reach 4,000 GW in the next four years.
The reason is straightforward: for most countries, solar combined with storage has become the cheapest form of power.
The challenge ISA is now focused on is ensuring that this acceleration does not bypass those who need it most.
“Those that are not able to see the benefits, like Africa and SIDS, must also be part of this,” he said.
For Khanna, the next wave of solar innovation in the Global South should be pushed not only by technology and capital, but also by private sector entrepreneurs, young people and women, to make the transition more inclusive and more durable.
Ten years after its launch in Paris, ISA is positioning itself as a central platform for that work: turning declarations made at climate summits into procurement models, risk-sharing facilities and circularity systems that can shape how the Global South powers its future.
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