'Scaling up of Renewable Energy’ focused on Solar PV Manufacturing and Hydrogen Mission'

To facilitate effective and expeditious implementation of Union Budget 2022 announcements, Government of India is holding a series of webinars across various key sectors. As part of this series, the Sectoral Group on Resources comprising seven ministries organized a webinar on “Energy for Sustainable Growth” on March 4, 2022 to discuss the initiatives of the Government of India in the energy and resources sector which were announced in the Budget 2022 to elicit ideas and suggestions for effective implementation of these initiatives. The webinar comprised sessions on six themes and witnessed participation of industry leaders, government officials and experts.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi gave a special address at the Plenary Session of the webinar. Reiterating India’s commitment to climate action and energy transition, Prime Minister urged discussion on key budget announcements like Rs 19500 crore allocation for PLI for high efficiency PV solar modules, Green Hydrogen Mission, Coal Gasification, Battery storage and clean cooking among others. Prime Minister urged the industry leaders to give concrete and practical suggestions to help evolve implementable action plans.

The Breakout session of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy ‘ Scaling up of Renewable Energy’ focused on solar PV manufacturing and Hydrogen Mission as well as the vision outlined by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. The panel was moderated by Sh. Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, Secretary, MNRE and panelists comprised Sh. Gurdeep Singh, CMD NTPC Ltd, Sh. Anil Sardana, MD & CEO, Adani Energy Vertical, Sh. Tulsi Tanti, CMD, Suzlon Energy, Sh. Sumant Sinha, CMD, ReNew Power and Sh.Pashupathy Gopalan, Director, Ohmium.

The industry leaders gave several concrete suggestions which included support for indigenous manufacturing for solar modules which may be extended to the entire value chain, including subcomponents and materials. This would enable growth of ancillary industry, including in MSME sector. Regarding Green Hydrogen, the industry welcomed the recent announcement of banking provisions and ISTS waiver for Green Hydrogen. It was suggested that to further optimize the cost of Green Hydrogen production, a mechanism for Inter-State banking of RE may be considered. For Green Hydrogen, the it was suggested that Government may consider incentivising both domestic manufacturing of electrolysers through a PLI mechanism and Green hydrogen end use. Industry leaders suggested that Solar cooking through both electric and thermal routes may be promoted. Startups have developed hybrid stoves that can work both on gas and solar power, these may also be explored. Rooftop solar promotion efforts may be intensified, given its huge potential. Carbon pricing mechanism would be beneficial for emerging technologies. Government may also consider incentivising Carbon capture and utilization. Circular Economy principles were also discussed which are being considered in MNRE’s committee on the subject. MNRE would be taking time bound action for implementation of the budget announcements.

In the concluding session , moderators of all thematic sessions presented a summary of suggestions and key takeaways to Shri RK Singh, Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy. Citing the suggestions as measures for ‘Future’ he instructed all ministries to follow up on the suggestions quickly in a time bound manner.