Gandhinagar: Inaugurating RE-Invest 2024 on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India is the best bet of the 21st century. Inviting investments in India’s green energy transition, the PM said that India has tremendous opportunities for investors not only in energy generation but also in the manufacturing sector. “India is striving for complete Made-in-India solutions and creating many possibilities. India is truly a guarantee of expansion and better returns,” said Modi.
RE-Invest, the 4th Global Renewable Energy Investor’s Meet and Expo since 2015, is being held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The three-day summit honours the important contributors to India’s remarkable achievement of over 200 GW of installed non-fossil fuel capacity and opened on Monday. PM Modi took a walkthrough of the exhibition which is showcasing cutting-edge innovations from public and private sector companies, start-ups, and major industry players.
Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that serious discussions will take place over the next three days on the future of energy, technology and policies. Noting that RE-Invest 2024 is not an isolated one but a part of the bigger vision, mission and action plan to make India a developed nation by 2047, the Prime Minister highlighted the decisions taken by the government in the first 100 days in office.
“The government’s work in the first 100 days highlights its priorities and reflects the speed and scale,” the Prime Minister remarked underlining that all sectors necessary for India’s fast-paced development have been focussed on. Commenting on the decisions specific to the energy sector, the PM said that big decisions have been taken by the government in the first 100 days of its third tenure, like the unveiling of a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for offshore wind energy projects and the approval granted by the government to an outlay of Rs 12,000 crore for producing 31,000 MW of hydropower in the time to come.
The Prime Minister underlined that as a developing economy, India had a valid excuse to stay out of these commitments but did not choose that path. He, however, added that “Today’s India is preparing a base not only for today but for the next thousand years.” Modi stressed that India’s aim was not just to reach the top, but to prepare ourselves to sustain at the top. He added that India was very well aware of its energy needs and requirements to make it a developed nation by 2047. Modi stated India had decided to build its future on the basis of renewables like solar power, wind power, nuclear and hydropower, as it does not have reserves of oil and gas.
The Prime Minister said India is the first G20 nation to achieve the climate commitments set in Paris, that too nine years before the deadline. Modi outlined the nation’s goals to achieve the target of putting in place 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030 and said that the government has turned the green transition into a people’s movement. Referring to the government’s scheme for Rooftop Solar — PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana — for households that consume 300 units of electricity or lower, the PM said that the scheme has turned households into power producers. He informed that more than 1 crore 30 lakh families have registered under the scheme and installation work has been completed in 3.25 lakh houses so far.
“India’s solar revolution will be scripted in Golden letters, when the history of the 21st century will be written,” Modi told the gathering. Talking about Ayodhya city, Modi informed that with this as an inspiration, the government was aiming to make Ayodhya, a model solar city.
Modi underlined that India was working at a great speed and scale in every sector related to renewable energy. He added that in the last decade, India had generated 35 percent more electricity from nuclear energy as compared to before and India was striving to become a global leader in the field of green hydrogen. He also mentioned India’s initiative that led to the creation of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), focus on green transition during India’s G-20 Presidency and the launch of the Global Biofuel Alliance during the G-20 Summit. “India has set a target of making its railways net zero by the end of this decade,” he said, adding that India has decided to achieve the target of 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.
Noting the increasing demand for renewable energy in India, the Prime Minister underlined that the government is formulating new policies to meet this demand and providing support in every way. The Governor of Gujarat, Acharya Devvrat, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Prahlad Joshi, Chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Goa were present on the occasion among others.
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