NITI Aayog's First Initiative-Renewable Electricity Roadmap 2030

The Report India's Renewable Electricity Roadmap 2030Toward Accelerated Renewable Electricity Deployment was released by NITI Aayog with support of CII, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and RAP (Regulatory Assistance Project), a global non-profit group. It talks about the current scenario of renewable energy in India and what needs to be done for its accelerated deployment to address energy security concerns.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Coal, Power and New & Renewable Energy, lauded NITI Aayog for the report and said that it has instilled a lot of hope for following more ambitious targets. We need to create an enabling environment with respect to clearance, land acquisition and other regulatory support.

The Minister suggested that the land owners, who provide their land for setting up renewable energy projects, could be given a stake in the projects as an incentive. He urged NITI Aayog to help in creating some innovative model for the RE sector. He addressed the panelists while sitting in the audience.

Commenting on the launch of the report, Smt Sindhushree Khullar, CEO, NITI Aayog- Govt of India stated that this is the first initiative of the Aayog. Energy and renewable energy is a core area in India. We need to see actual movement on whatever the report suggests about, said Smt Khullar.

Mr Deepak Gupta, Senior Programme Manager- Power, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, said that the report suggests possible roadmap to achieve ambitious targets in the renewable sector after assessing several best practices around the world.

The panelists were of the opinion that India needs to keep renewable energy as a matter of national importance. They suggested that the need of the hour is to move away from the current practice and make RE as an integral part of the power sector. For this a comprehensive national policy framework would be required for smoother renewable projects development in the country.

Mr Mackay Miller, Technology Innovation Analyst, NREL, congratulated the Indian government for its ambitious RE targets and intent to attain that goal. He suggested that there is need to think about policy and financing mechanism so that investments take place.

Smt Varsha Joshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, lauded the report terming it as a good effort by the compilers. It's time that India has to look at RE as a resource across the states. There are a lot of things to be learned and a lot to be done, she said.

Shri Sumant Sinha talked about thinking 'out of the box' to operationalise the issues highlighted in the report. Why can't we make renewable energy as the backbone of India's electricity generation? We have to re-think our entire reliability on coal. Discoms are reluctant on buying renewable power against highly subsidised conventional power, Shri Sinha noted.

Getting fund is seen as one of the major challenges. However, Shri Rajat Misra, VP, SBI Capital Markets Ltd is of the opinion that funding is not a constraint if there is good policy in place.

Shri SK Soonee, CEO, POSOCO, raised the issue of grid as one of the major hurdles in increasing renewable potential. The experts stressed that renewable energy could be the backbone of Indian power scenario provided existing issues are addressed. They objected to having coal as the preferred power choice just because it is available beneath the earth.

Smt Khullar stated that there is misconception in India that renewable energy is for rich. She asked everyone to be a part of this movement in renewable energy. We are starting this journey with great hope and we should walk together to make it happen, Smt Khullar concluded.

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