India’s potential to lead world in green energy

Post budget webinar on green growth discusses India’s potential to lead world in green energy.
The first post-budget webinar on green growth was recently hosted by the Ministry of Electricity and covered 12 announcements from the Union Budget 2023–24 in six parallel sessions. The discussions, which aimed to gather input for the finalisation of a time-bound action plan for implementing budget proposals, drew more than 1100 participants from industry, academia, PSUs, state governments, and sector specialists.
While the first break-out session on green growth, led by Alok Kumar, secretary of power, and co-led by B. S. Bhalla, secretary of mnre, concentrated on energy storage, interstate transmission systems for re-evacuation, the green hydrogen mission, and capital investments for the transition to renewable energy, Pankaj Jain, Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, led the second breakout session, which focused on the GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme. The Green Credit Programme, MISHTI, and Amrit Dharohar projects were discussed with stakeholders during the third break-out session led by Leena Nandan, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.
PM-PRANAM and Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centers were discussed during the fourth session, which was chaired by Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog. The fifth break-out session on coastal shipping was chaired by Sudhansh Pant, Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, and Alka Upadhyaya, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, spoke with stakeholders about the challenges and timelines of the vehicle replacement programme.
The Prime Minister addressed the audience and said, “This budget will play a key role in establishing India as a lead player in the global green energy market. That is why, today, I invite every stakeholder of the energy world to invest in India.”
He raised the possibility of achieving the budget’s different goals, noting that India has already reached its goal of 40 percent non-fossil fuel contributions to installed electrical capacity nine years earlier than expected. In addition, India has already met its goal of blending 10 percent ethanol into gasoline, five months ahead of schedule. The country now aims to blend 20 percent ethanol into gasoline by 2025–2026 rather than 2030.
The Prime Minister addressed the audience and urged businesses to invest in the sector, stating that India has a great potential to lead the world in green energy and create green jobs.
In the breakout session on Green Growth, Power & MNRE, Minister R. K. Singh said, “The country will add 325 GW of renewable energy capacity between now and 2030. It has the lowest cost of setting up RE capacity; and its cost of Green Hydrogen will be the most competitive in the world. The country will need at least 80 GW of electrolyzer capacity by 2030. India is poised to transform from a net importer of energy to being a net exporter of energy.”
He emphasised that the power sector will emerge as a major contributor to the country’s investment and growth.
It was highlighted that the country’s economy was expanding at a rate of 7 percent while the need for power was rising at a rate of 10 percent and that sufficient capacity was being built for generation, transmission, and distribution to meet the expanding demands of the economy. By 2030, green hydrogen production is expected to reach a maximum of 5 MMT, but the nation wants to achieve even more.
The power minister remarked that the day-long discussions had been very constructive and that the stakeholders had provided many excellent proposals. He stated that these proposals would be worked on by the relevant ministries in order to create a time-bound action plan.
The Union Budget includes 12 initiatives across 13 ministries as part of the Green Growth agenda, including the Green Hydrogen Mission, Energy Transition, Energy Storage Projects, Renewable Energy Evacuation, Green Credit Program, PM-PRANAM, GOBARdhan Scheme, Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centers, MISHTI, Amrit Dharohar, Coastal Shipping, and Vehicle Replacement.