Solar power to be focus of shift in future energy needs:Ambani

Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani, owner of world's largest oil refinery, today said solar power will be at the core of the shift in future source of energy needs - from hydrocarbon to renewable. "We will transit form hydrocarbon presence which is coal, oil and natural gas over the next many decades into a fully renewable, sustainable future and the solar really will be at the heart of it," Ambani said in an interview with CNN International. Reliance has a solar division that was established to bring solar energy systems and solutions primarily to remote and rural areas. Asked about the probable impact on the oil prices in the event of a military strike on Iran, he said, "Today there is enough spare capacity in the system to take care of eventualities." But, at the same time, he was full praise for the US for moving towards self-reliance on energy with a "fundamental transformation" that has taken place in the country. "There has been a fundamental transformation in the energy scene in the US. For many decades, we have heard that the US will be independent of foreign imports of energy. Realistically, I can now tell you that this is my judgement that this will happen in the next 5 or 7 years," he said. "The US has truly found non-conventional energy in shale oil and gas which is really bringing benefit not only to the population in the US, but to across the world," he added.