During the International Solar Festival 2024, a Leadership Panel on “India’s enhanced role in North-South partnership for faster solar energy transition” brought together important stakeholders to talk about India’s critical role in advancing the adoption of solar energy globally. Leading authorities in the solar industry, legislators, and corporate executives participated in the panel, which was arranged by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in association with the Becquerel Institute and was a feature of the Private Sector Pavilion.
According to international analysts, India’s progress in increasing solar energy gives hope for achieving net-zero by 2070.
Mr. Vivek Kumar Dewangan, Chairman and Managing Director of REC Ltd., gave a captivating opening speech to the session. He described India’s incredible journey of increasing its capacity for renewable energy by 250 percent between 2014 and 2021, making it the fourth-largest renewable energy nation in the world. “The scheme to provide rootstock to one crore households has been announced by the Honorable Prime Minister. In the next two to three years, this very ambitious plan aims to install one crore rooftop solar panels. Rooftop solar is the single goal that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has designated as the national program implementation agency. According to what I hear, there isn’t a program like this anywhere in the world,” Mr. Dewangan continued.
The presentation emphasized India’s dedication to sustainable development by outlining its plans for increasing the production of renewable energy, making investments in energy efficiency, and using green hydrogen as a storage alternative to lessen reliance on fossil fuels.
Important insights regarding India’s role in developing better North-South partnerships for speeding solar transitions were provided by panelists from a variety of sectors and geographic areas.
Mr. Deepak Kumar Nayak, Business Head, Solar EPC, L&T, highlighted the difficulties with the transmission network by saying, “Solar development doesn’t take two years.” One can finish a 500 megawatt or 1 GW plant in 12 to 18 months, but the transmission network needs time to build. For the next six years, we must significantly expand the transmission and distribution network in order to reach 30 gigawatts annually.