1500-2000 GW Renewable Energy potential in India; GOI to roll out Rs 30000 cr for coal gasification & plans incentives worth $ 5 Billion for battery manufacturing: NITI AYOG
Kolkata: “There is 1500-2000 GW potential for Renewable Energy (RE) in India and once this is realized, attaining net zero will not be far”, said Mr. Rajnath Ram, Adviser, Energy, NITI Aayog at the 9th Green Energy Summit organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
There is a huge amount of imports happening in this sector and hence he urged the necessity to develop the domestic supply chain, if India is to become truly Atmanirbhar and see substantial growth in renewable energy.
Realizing the huge demand for Solar PV manufacturing, Government is in process of devising policies and is planning on incentives worth USD 5 billion to set up battery manufacturing units, informed Mr. Ram.
He stated that solar will be the game changer for India’s energy sector and hence defined the three elements needed for seamless energy transition, namely building cutting edge PV technology, energy storage and industrial decarbonization through promotion of RE.
He felt that with the current availability of coal in India, that nation can sustain energy security for over the next 40 years. Hence much focus is being laid on the cleaning of coal; GOI has sanctioned INR 30000 crores for gasification of coal in this regard.
“India is the only country among G20 nations that is moving close to achieving what it committed in the 2015 Paris Agreement”, said, Mr. Anil Razdan, Former Power Secretary, GOI & Honorary Chairman, ICC National Expert Committee on Energy.
Notably, India accounted for 6.4% of the global emissions and is trying to reduce that to a significant extent.
“Solar price will become competitive in about two years but the short-term bulk supply will still be met by coal. Nevertheless, going ahead we will be in a situation where high price coal will be replaced by low price solar; so resource efficiency should be looked at this point with utmost importance”, said Dr. Ajay Mathur, DG, TERI.
On the other hand, Mr. Gautam Ray, ED- HR & Admin, CESC Ltd stated that it is the combination of cleaning existing resources and installing clean energy will be the most practical and pragmatic approach. He identified that there is enough opportunity in electric cooking that should be explored.
Source: UNI
