07 Jul 2021
Mitigating the adverse effects of Climate Change has become a matter of priority globally and ‘clean energy’ will play a huge role in curbing this threat to the world. India, too, is robustly committed to this agenda and has set a mission to scale up clean, affordable, reliable, equitable, and sustainable energy for all.
India’s clean energy transition is on track. With solar energy prices hitting a record low, coal is no longer the cheapest source of energy.
With a population of 1.4 billion and one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, India is vital for the future of the global energy markets. With an expanding economy, population, urbanization, and industrialization, India would see the largest increase in energy demand of any country, across all our scenarios to 2040. The Government of India has made impressive progress in recent times by successfully implementing a range of energy market reforms and carrying out a huge amount of renewable electricity deployment with investment in newer technologies.
India has made remarkable progress in renewable energy in the last few years and now ranks 3rd in the renewable energy country attractive index in 2021. The renewable energy capacity in India is currently 136 GW, which is about 36 per cent of its total energy capacity. India’s installed renewable energy capacity has increased by over two and a half times and stands at more than 141 GW (including large Hydro), which is about 37 per cent of the country’s total capacity, as of 16 June 2021.
Renewable energy brings an array of benefits including a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, cutbacks in import of fossils, lowering our energy costs substantially, and sustainable growth of the economy.
India is relentlessly working on its ambitious target of installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. The advent of hydrogen will further accelerate our country’s renewable energy transition.
The government’s policies and investments in this sector will be pivotal for this shift to large-scale adoption of clean energy sources, and to subsequently move towards a cleaner, greener, and healthier India.
Our country holds the distinction of having the world’s largest solar energy capacity addition program and it’s high time India becomes self-reliant for its energy needs.
Our government has the energy sector in its focus and has been taking many steps to promote the manufacturing and adoption of renewable energy, including tax concessions, incentives, Production Linked Incentive scheme, etc.
This Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission will also create immense job opportunities, thereby contributing significantly to the sustained growth of our economy. For this, a skilled workforce will help.
Green hydrogen is another focus area for our country which is opening fresh opportunities in the renewable energy sector. Hydrogen will play a fundamental role in the long term and faster adoption of hydrogen will significantly contribute towards making our country truly self-reliant in energy.
The next few years are critical for India’s clean energy transition. Clean energy sources like solar energy continue to evolve and many technological breakthroughs will make storage of renewable energy practical & economical.
To further fast-track self-reliance, we need to increase our budget expenditure in Research & Development in this sector.
India is sincerely committed to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The core aim is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. There is also a commitment to increase efforts in all arenas for mitigating the risks of Climate Change which aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
CII has consistently taken initiatives to promote the growth of manufacturing in the renewable energy sector in India. It further continues to closely engage with the Government to make policy recommendations that can help in bolstering domestic manufacturing and positioning ourselves as a global manufacturing hub.
CII had launched the first edition of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” in July 2020 to create awareness amongst all stakeholders, to unlock the potential of India’s Renewable Energy Manufacturing Sector.
The Second Edition of the Digital Conference & Exhibition “Aatmanirbhar Bharat – Self-Reliance for Renewable Energy Manufacturing” is being held on 15-16 July 2021.
There will be many interesting and meaningful deliberations in the areas of scaling up of RE manufacturing, improving India’s competitiveness, innovative technologies, impact on climate change, strategies, and framework for defining the future of renewables including in areas like skill development.
The time is certainly ripe to unleash the true potential of Renewable Energy in our country and position India as a global manufacturing hub.
The blog has been contributed by Mr Sameer Gupta, Chairman, CII National Committee on Aatmanirbhar Bharat – RE Manufacturing and Chairman & Managing Director, Jakson Group.