Govt trying to address issues in renewable energy sector: Goyal

Says country's energy security concerns also need to be addressed

The government is trying to address issues in the renewable energy sector by balancing all interests and ensuring that consumers get power at an affordable price, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

The Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy also said that the country's energy security concerns need to be addressed.

"There have been concerns about renewable power obligations not being met or not being enforced. There are concerns about domestic manufacturing not being able to scale up... We are trying to address these various issues," Goyal said at a conference here.

According to him, the government is trying to balance all interests ensuring finally that consumer gets quality power at affordable price.

The renewable energy sector is grappling with various issues. These include non-compliance by entities in following the renewable purchase obligations in the power sector.

Various efforts are underway to boost the domestic renewable energy sector.

"It is adjoined upon our nation to look at renewables more seriously to see if we can expand more rapidly... I hope that within the five-year term of this government, we will put India right on top of the world map of renewable energy," the minister said.

Currently, India has an installed renewable power generation capacity of more than 31,600 MW.

Speaking at a conclave on renewable energy, Goyal asserted that there would be no budget restriction on research and development activities.

"I have said that any amount of people who need to go and study abroad, do some joint research abroad and get ideas for improving our labs, absolutely there will be no restriction.

"I will personally approve any travel that you want to organise for scientists to learn from ideas internationally," he added.