The 2,000-kilometre-long undersea cable project between India and the United Arab Emirates, part of the One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG), is economically viable and could allow large-scale cross-border power trade.
Aug 21, 2025
India, under One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has announced a 2,000-kilometre-long undersea cable project with the United Arab Emirates. It is an economically viable project and could allow large-scale cross-border power trade, according to Mr. Ashish Khanna, Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
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Speaking at the Twenty-fourth Darbari Seth Memorial Lecture organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Mr. Khanna emphasized that the regional interconnection between India and West Asia could address energy security, reduce dependence on costly storage technologies, and facilitate trading of up to 15,000 megawatts of electricity.
He stressed that the ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ initiative would help countries diversify their energy mix, particularly smaller economies that remain dependent on diesel. He further said that this will help smaller countries that are still 80 per cent dependent on diesel get out of diesel by aggregating their procurement.
Additionally, ISA is promoting the creation of “digital twins” for power utilities to optimize energy use. Early results are showing that it can actually reduce your renewable energy requirement by 20 per cent because that will optimally dispatch the power generated on the rooftop and in the fields.
He further pointed out that out of the USD 2.2 trillion that was spent last year on clean technology, less than 15% came to developing countries. One of the main reasons is that the international private sector perceives a relatively high risk of investing in developing countries.
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He further said that to address this, ISA has set up a global solar facility in GIFT City in Gujarat, which will design financial innovation structures for each continent.
