“Energy for Sustainable Growth”

The Sectoral Group on Resources comprising of Ministries of Power; Petroleum & Natural Gas; New & Renewable Energy; Coal; Mines; External Affairs; and Environment, Forest & Climate Change organised a Webinar on “Energy for Sustainable Growth” in March , 2022 and to discuss the initiatives of the Government of India in the energy and resources sector which have been announced in Budget 2022 and to elicit ideas and suggestions for effective implementation of these initiatives.

‘Energy for Sustainable Growth’ not only resonates with the Indian tradition but is a pathway to achieve future needs and aspirations. Sustainable growth is possible only through sustainable energy sources. The Prime Minister reiterated his commitments made at Glasgow to reach Net Zero by 2070. India is providing leadership  in the global collaborations like International Solar Alliance.

India also aims to achieve 500 gigawatt non-fossil energy capacity and achieving  50 per cent of installed energy capacity through non-fossil energy by 2030. ‘India can become hub of green hydrogen given its inherent advantage in the form of abundant renewable energy power’.

The webinar was part of the new practice of discussion and dialogue with the stakeholders before and after the budget. The objective is to brainstorm with experts from the public and private sectors, academia and industry and identify strategies on how best to move forward towards implementation of various issues under different sectors. The webinar had sessions on different themes of relevance and witnessed participation of government officials of various ministries and state governments and industry representatives.

Developing Energy Storage for RE Expansion: 

The stakeholders emphasized on the aspects of mandating storage obligation, ascertaining the percentage of energy storage to be part of RE development (RE + storage) tender, developing comprehensive energy storage policy, mandating energy storage in transmission planning and promoting large scale demand aggregation.

Lifestyle for Environment (LIFE): The key areas covered in the session were Energy Conservation: ESCO Model, Promoting Electric Mobility: Battery Swapping, Circular Economy.

Promoting Biomass as an Alternative Energy Source: 

Agro and Farm Forestry: 

The panelists emphasised on pan India amendment / simplification or exemption in the tree felling and transit rules, strengthening institutional support by creating Agroforestry board, lowering GST on timber so that it can compete with MSP supported agricultural crop, development specific agroforestry and Trees Outside Forest models based on different agro climatic regions, framework for accreditation of private nurseries for providing quality planting stock etc.

Scaling up of Renewable Energy: The session focused on Solar Manufacturing and Hydrogen Mission. 

Some of the recommendations of the stakeholders included indigenisation of the entire value chain across renewable energies, extending indigenous manufacturing for solar modules to the entire value chain, ISTS-level energy banking of Green hydrogen production plants will require, examining the issues of e-reverse bidding process, focusing on decentralised renewables and mini grids and more.