In essence, India’s renewable energy capacity lies mostly with southern and western states, which makes it difficult to address sustainability and fairness when talking about the country’s energy transition. This was among the issues raised concerning the disparity at a conference recently held by experts and stakeholders on an inclusive approach towards the achievement of India’s ambitious renewable energy goals. As the CEO of iFOREST, Dr. Chandra Bhushan, articulated, if India has to meet its renewable energy targets, then states need to be majorly participating in this energy transition because huge policy reforms such as ISTS charge waivers have to tag along with that.
This was further articulated by the Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, while he was impressing on balanced growth in the deployment of renewable energy capacities. He registered, through careful thought, that the soon-to-exit ISTS waiver is geared to a state-based approach to ensure all states have a fair share of renewable energy infrastructure. The move was consistent with reports in the past year that had looked at the effects of waivering ISTS charges and urged redoubling the efforts of REDAs in states where such efforts were otherwise lower.
Aspects of the conference also touched on the ongoing deliberations of a new policy on the energy transition that is still pending at the central government level. Stakeholders underlined the necessity for implementing less land-intensive technologies, leaving out arguments about floating solar and rooftop solar systems, and achieving regional balance. Vikram Kapur, Group President of ReNew Power, took this even further with the idea that scaling up renewable energy needs state-specific strategies. Mandvi Singh, Program Director, iFOREST, said policy actions by both the central and state governments have to be taken to make advances that are proactive and keep the country on the track of high renewable growth and meeting international commitments.
The conference ended with a demand that urgent collaborative actions need to be taken by all parties to ensure a sustainable and just energy transition for India.
Source: iFOREST