After postponing the mega renewable energy event RE-Invest three times in last two years, the Central government has finally decided to hold it in Greater Noida in December this year.
“We have been facing problems in arranging the sponsors for this event. Hopefully, the problems will be resolved by November and the event in December would be as successful as the last one,” said a senior government official on the condition of anonymity.
The first Global RE-Invest was held in New Delhi from February 15 to17 in 2015. The Centre had then decided that this would be an annual event. But then, the second edition was postponed from February, 2016 to November, 2016. Later, the government announced that the second edition has been postponed again from November, 2016 to February, 2017 and that it will be organised in Gandhinagar.
However, due to lack of sponsors, the second edition was postponed again indefinitely. It was not clear as to when and where would this event be organised. Finally, the Centre has decided that the second edition of RE-Invest will be held this year from December 7 to.
Senior representatives from the renewable energy industry, equipment manufacturers, global financial institutions, public sector enterprises, regulatory authorities, central and state governments, research institutions and academia participated in the first edition of RE-Invest.
During the first edition, various private renewable energy companies had promised to establish huge electricity generation capacities by 2022. Currently, many of them are nowhere close to meeting their targets. A few of them have exited the Indian renewable energy market altogether. For example, America’s major renewable energy company SunEdison promised to establish 15,200 MW capacity by 2022. Last year, SunEdison sold off its Indian assets to Greenko Energy Holdings (GEH) and exited India to pare down its huge debts.
Welspun Renewable Energy promised to establish 11,001 MW capacity by 2022. Welspun’s renewable energy assets were sold to Tata Power last year.
Essel Infraprojects had promised to establish 12,000 MW capacity by 2022. Till date, the company has established 650 MW capacity only.
Hindustan Clean Energy said it will establish 10,000 MW capacity by 2022 — it has been able to establish only 600 MW capacity till date. CII, which is the main event manager, did not respond to the queries of The Indian Express. Anand Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) also did not respond to the queries.
At the first edition, against the NDA government’s target of 1.75 lakh MW of clean energy by 2022, the participants had committed 2.75 lakh MW of renewable capacity during the same time. Close to 319 private companies — domestic and foreign— who participated in the event along with 15 odd PSUs, which committed 15,000 MW. State- owned NTPC led the pack with 10,000 MW promise.
According to the statement on the website of Global RE-Invest 2017, “several energy ministers and high-level delegations from the 121 ISA (International Solar Alliance) member nations are expected to participate” in the event which is being organised by the MNRE in partnership with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI), with YES Bank as the knowledge partner.
Source: indianexpress
