PM Modi emphasized India’s commitment to realizing the vision of 175 GigaWatts of clean energy.
AB Wire
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A roundtable meeting on renewable energy chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by top energy CEOs and experts in the US expressed the view that India has the makings of becoming the “clean energy world capital.”
Modi, who is on an official visit to the US, held the roundtable meeting with the heads of the top renewable energy companies to develop renewable energy in the country.
Top energy CEOs and investors, including Ahmad Chatila, CEO of SunEdison, Nikesh Arora, President and COO of Softbank, K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, Jonathan Wolfson, CEO of Solazyme; John Doerr, a venture capitalist and Ira Ehrenpreis of DBL partners attended the meeting.
PM meeting members of the US Energy Sector Round table pic.twitter.com/1KvGwPCEbr
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During the meeting, the experts said that India had to address issues in four key areas – technology integration, finance, regulatory frameworks and the right talent pool.
The CEOs present gave a brief overview of the technologies and innovations being used in their companies. In addition to solar and wind energy, biomass was also suggested as a key provider of clean energy.
On the occasion, Modi emphasized India’s commitment to realizing the vision of 175 GigaWatts of clean energy. He said there was a massive scope of investment in the sector, for example, through the railways, where 100 percent FDI had been allowed.
The participants viewed that the current grid was not designed for carrying the 175 GigaWatts (GW) of renewable energy that India is targeting, and therefore a complimentary effort was required on the grid side. Private investment was emphasized as vital for realizing the vision of 175 GW, with a parallel example being given of how Israel had solved its water shortage using private investment.
The Prime Minister also gave an overview of initiatives that were already undertaken in the area of renewable energy, such as Kochi Airport becoming a solar-powered airport, and solar panels being installed over a canal in Gujarat.
Early next month, a district court in the tribal belt of Jharkhand will become entirely solar-powered, he informed.
This meeting was attended by Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy, United States and Prof. Steven Chu, former US Secretary of Energy.