At the inaugural session of the RE-Invest Global Conference on September 16, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “When the history of the 21st century is written, Bharat’s solar revolution will be inscribed in golden letters.”

This year’s RE-Invest was a landmark event as it was the first time that State governments and public sector undertakings also submitted their shapath patras (solemn pledges), along with private sector companies, to the Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi, on the quantum of RE capacity they would add by 2030. The timing of the announcements was pertinent as India had just achieved a major milestone of 200 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, thereby consolidating its position as the fourth largest RE market in the world.

States are central to the country achieving its 500 GW target and it is encouraging to note that the State policies and incentives draw inspiration from the national policy framework and ecosystem put in place by the Prime Minister since 2014.

States’ initiative

Just a few days ago, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu unveiled a forward looking ‘Integrated Clean Energy Policy’, with a goal of nearly 160 GW of new RE capacity in the next five years, with an estimated investment of ₹10 lakh crore. A few days before that, Tamil Nadu unveiled ‘Repowering, Refurbishment, and Life Extension Policy 2024’ for old wind turbines of low capacity. Gujarat has always a had a robust ecosystem for the RE sector formulated by Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. Gujarat’s land allocation policy for RE projects is the most transparent.

The Madhya Pradesh RE Policy of 2022 has enabled large scale investments in RE in that State, especially in large solar parks. Karnataka has announced it would be rolling out a renewable energy policy soon. The Telangana Government has said it would come out with a new RE policy with a goal of adding 40 GW of capacity.

The RE targets of some of the States exceed those of most countries. To put the States’ 2030 targets in perspective, the UK targets to achieve 70 GW of cumulative solar capacity by 2035, Japan plans 108 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030, Australia hopes to add 32 GW of additional wind and solar capacity.

Having taken up a leadership role in renewables, India is focusing on new energy frontiers such as green hydrogen (GH) led by the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Given the scale of investments required, most State governments have announced a capital subsidy for projects to produce GH and its derivatives.

To sum up, renewable energy is a sector where there is strong alignment and co-operation between the Centre and the States. Now it is over to the PSUs and private developers to deliver on their shapath patras that would take India to 500 GW of RE by 2030.

The writer is Founder, Chairman and MD of Hero Future Energies Pvt Ltd