Addressing the event ‘Intersolar Europe 2022’ in Munich, Germany on India’s solar energy market, Khuba said that India offers great opportunity for investments in the renewable energy space.
A total of 493 projects are underway including 464 government-aided projects, according to government data.
“India offers a great opportunity for investments. Currently around $196.98 billion worth of projects are underway in India. I once again invite all the developed countries and major RE players to utilise the opportunity India is offering to the world," he said.
The focus on renewable energy has gained momentum as Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to achieve net zero carbon emission by 2070 at the COP-26 summit in Glasgow.
The minister said that India’s “vast renewable energy resource potential and strong policy backing provide a strong foundation for achieving these goals".
He said that India has seen incredible growth of renewable energy capacity in last seven years and has achieved target of 40% cumulative electric capacity from non-fossil fuel in 2021, nine years ahead of set target of 2030.
The minister also said that Centre is committed to promoting domestic manufacturing in the solar photovoltaic (PV) sector to achieve its ambitious deployment goals. Several policy measures have been undertaken to support the domestic PV manufacturing sector.
In April last year, the union cabinet approved the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme ‘National Programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ to promote manufacturing of high efficiency solar PV modules, including the upstage vertical components like solar PV cells, wafers, ingots, polysilicon. Letters of award have been issued under the PLI scheme to three successful bidders for setting up about 9 GW capacity of fully integrated solar PV module manufacturing units for ₹4,500 crore of initial allocation.
Further, in this year’s budget, the Finance Minister announced an additional outlay of ₹19,500 crore. With the enhanced incentive scheme, India is expected to have a solar manufacturing capacity of 50 GW in India within the next 4-5 years.
Further to promote green hydrogen economy India has made an estimated outlay of ₹25,425 crore, he said, adding that the Green Hydrogen Mission is expected to generate 4.1 million tonnes of annual green hydrogen production.
In February, the government launched the first part of the National Green Hydrogen Policy.
