Pune: India has the capability to lead the global efforts to take on the challenge of climate and will remain in the forefront of harnessing solar and other forms of renewable energy to make the world a better place to live, Union Minister for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal emphasised on Saturday.
Optimising natural resources is inherent in the Indian way of life for thousands of year and the country is eminently suited to demonstrate to the world how practical it can be to utilise solar energy for the development of remote and undeveloped areas, Mr Goyal said.
Mr Goyal was speaking on “India’s efforts in shaping the Global Solar Alliance” in a meeting hosted by the Pune International Centre. Mr Vijay Kelkar, vice president of the PIC, industrialist and trustee of the PIC Baba Kalyani, Convenor of the PIC Programmes Committee Mr Amitabh Malik and PIC Director Prashant Girbane were present at the meeting.
International Solar Alliance is an initiative to bring together solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Mr Goyal said India has targeted generation of 1 lakh megawatt of electricity from solar energy and will leave no stone unturned to encourage manufacture of solar power equipment in India to make the electricity generated from solar energy cheaper than the conventional electricity. “The country’s solar sector has added 2400 mw electricity this year and will add 12000 MW electricity next year,” Mr Goyal said. He added that the government will also encourage installing of rooftop solar electricity generation plants and has targeted generation of 40,000 MW from this channel.
“We think big, work to the economies of scale, believe in our ability and execute projects according to a defined timeline with strict supervision and follow up,” Mr Goyal said.
He made a reference to how the significant decline in the cost of LED lamps without compromising on technology and efficiency was achieved using the economies of scale.
Mr Goyal came down heavily on the developed countries who contribute maximum to the greenhouse gas generation and lecture developing nations about how to tackle climate change.
PIC Director Prashant Girbane welcomed the audience, Vice President Vijay Kelkar introduced Mr Goyal. Mr Amitabh Malik proposed the vote of thanks.
