Government to facilitate easier open access to Green Energy : Power Minister

New Delhi, 16 July (H.S): The union Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh Friday said that India has emerged as world leader in the Energy Transition. He said that India has one of the fastest rates of growth of Renewable Energy capacity in the world.

Addressing the conference of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on ‘Aatmairbhar Bharat – Self Reliance for Renewable Energy Manufacturing’, R. K. Singh said that India had pledged in COP-21 in Paris that by 2030, fourty percent of its power generation capacity will be from non-fossil fuel sources, which had already reached at 38.5 pc and if the capacity under installation is added, it comes to 48.5 pc. The Minister said that India proposes to continue to be a world leader in the coming years as well and it has set a target of 450 GW of Renewable Energy capacity by 2030.

Singh pointed out that India had achieved universal access by connecting every village and every hamlet under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana Scheme and connecting every household under Saubhagya Scheme. It was the fastest and the largest expansion of access in the world. This had also resulted in the demand for electricity going up rapidly. Singh informed that India has already touched 200 GW of demand even when the effects of COVID-19 was still there. The demand had crossed what it was during pre-COVID time and it is expected that electricity demand will continue to rise. This gives us the space for adding more Renewable Energy capacity.

The Minister further said that Government is determined that the job creation due to this capacity addition must be located in India and that is why Aatmanirbhar Bharat is important. The Minister pointed out that some countries had been dumping solar cells and modules at very low price and harming our local industry. He said that to prevent dumping it was decided to impose customs duty on imported cells and modules so as to provide protection to Indian Industry from dumping.

He also referred to the mechanism of ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers) which will also provide protection to Indian Industries. The Minister said that India will also emerge as a leader in Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia. Singh further informed that India proposes to green industry sectors to replace Grey Hydrogen (drawn from imported natural gas) with Green Hydrogen and for this it will come out with a Green Hydrogen Purchase Obligation for different sectors like petroleum and fertilizer. This will also provide huge demand for domestically manufactured solar and wind equipments as well as storage.

Singh informed that government proposes to come out with rules and regulations providing for easier open access for those industries which want to become green i.e. which want to rely on green energy for their functioning. Industry will be able to either set up green energy manufacturing capacity itself or through a developer and draw power from it through open access. The surcharge on open access will also be rationalized so as to ensure that open access is not saddled with unfair levies.