Rs 19.5k cr budget thrust to make India solar hub: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Budget announcement of Rs 19,500 crore for high-efficiency solar module manufacturing will help in making India a global hub for manufacturing and Research & Development of solar modules and related products.
Addressing a webinar on ‘Energy for Sustainable Growth’, the Prime Minister said “Provisions have also been made in this year’s budget regarding battery swapping policy and inter-operability standards.”
“These will reduce the problems faced in the use of electric vehicles in India”, he said.This is ninth webinar in the series of post-budget webinars addressed by the Prime Minister.He said that sustainable growth is possible only through sustainable energy sources.The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment made at Glasgow to reach Net Zero by 2070. He also mentioned his vision of LIFE pertaining to an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
He talked of a target of achieving 500 gigawatt non-fossil energy capacity and achiving 50 per cent of installed energy capacity through non-fossil energy by 2030.
“Whatever targets India has set for itself, I do not see them as a challenges but as opportunity. India is moving with this vision in last few years and the same has been taken forward at policy level in this year’s budget”, he said.
This budget has announced 19,500 crore for high-efficiency solar module manufacturing which will help in making India a global hub for manufacturing and R&D of solar modules and related products.
Referring to recently announced National Hydrogen Mission, the Prime Minister said India can become hub of green hydrogen given its inherent advantage in the form of abundant renewable energy power. He asked for private sector efforts in the area.
The Prime Minister emphasized that along with energy production, energy saving is equally important for sustainability.
“You should work on how to make more Energy Efficient A/C, Efficient heaters, geysers, ovens in our country”, he exhorted the participants.
Stressing the need to prioritize energy efficient products, the Prime Minister gave the example of promotion of LED bulbs at large scale. He said that first the government brought down the cost of LED bulbs by promoting production and then 37 crore LED bulbs were distributed under the Ujala scheme.This has led to saving of forty eight thousand million Kilo Watt Hour electricity and saving of about 20 thousand crore rupees in the electricity bills of poor and middle class families. Furthermore, annual carbon emission saw a decline of 4 crore tonnes. Local bodies are saving 6 thousand crore rupees every year due to adoption of LED bulbs in street lights, he added.Coal gasification is a clean alternative to coal, the Prime Minister noted.
In this year’s budget, for coal gasification, 4 pilot projects have been announced which will help in firming up technical and financial viability of these projects.
Similarly, the government is also continuously promoting ethanol blending, he said.
