Share Of Renewables In India's Energy Mix To Grow Manifold In Near Future - Minister

Share of renewables in the energy mix of India will rise manifold in the near future, and the country wants to maintain leading positions in clean energy production, Dharmendra Pradhan, India's minister of petroleum and natural gas, told Sputnik

ABU DHABI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2019) Share of renewables in the energy mix of India will rise manifold in the near future, and the country wants to maintain leading positions in clean energy production, Dharmendra Pradhan, India's minister of petroleum and natural gas, told Sputnik.

"India is moving towards energy transition ... Looking at this sector in India, we have our own model of energy transition. When we are talking about energy transition, we are giving much more focus on renewable energy. We will continue to use our old conventional energy sources � whether it is coal or oil � we will continue to use them, but for our incremental requirement, because India is the highest growth point of the energy industry in the world in the near future," the minister stated.

Pradhan said that India was focused on further stepping up renewable energy production to remain a leader in the field. However, he pointed out that the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which was established by New Delhi with the aim of moving away from dependence on fossil fuels and toward solar power, was a tool for creating a sustainable model and one it did not wish to replicate with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"So, the ISA is a natural outcome of that position that we have taken. I cite one example: four years back India's renewable energy generating target was 175 gigawatts ... Prime Minister Narendra Modi upscaled that target to 450 gigawatts. So, India is already is in a leadership position. We do not want to replicate the ISA with another agency, we want to create a sustainable model for a while, and India wants to take a leadership position in that journey. [The share of renewables in India's energy mix] will increase multifold ... It will take a substantial place in the basket," the minister pointed out.

When asked whether India used any stabilization mechanisms to protect its energy industry from possible future incidents in the Persian Gulf, Pradhan said that New Delhi was in talks with some countries of the region regarding investments in India's strategic storage, while the United Arab Emirates had already invested in the country's strategic stocks.