NITI Aayog and Netherlands sign “Decarbonisation and Energy Transition Agenda”

September 30, 2020

NITI Aayog and Netherlands recently signed a Statement of Intent. They agreed to support “Decarbonization and Energy Transition Agenda” to accommodate cleaner energy.

Highlights

Under the SoI, the partners will co-create innovative technological solutions. This is to be achieved through exchange of knowledge and collaborative activities.

Key Components of the agreement

The key elements of the agreement are as follows

To lower net carbon foot print in industrial and collaborative activities
To realise target potential of natural gas
To promote bio-energy technologies
To adopt clean air technology
To adopt climate change finance

Significance

Currently, India stands committed to reduce the emission intensity by 33% to 35% by 2030 as compared to 2005. Also, India is committed towards rapid adoption of electric vehicles. India is also focused to increase its 40% of cumulative electric power to be received from non-fossil fuels. Out of all the renewable energy, India has huge potential of solar energy.

Solar Power in India

In August 2020, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy received proposals from various players for fresh solar equipment manufacturing for over 10 GW of energy. India recently inaugurated a 750 MW solar project in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. These moves are in line with India’s target of achieving 175 GW of installed renewable energy by 2022.

Challenges

India manufactures 20 GW of solar cells annually. However, the country generates only 3 GW annually. Around 80% of inputs and components are imported from China. This accounts to 1.69 billion USD. There are only 16 solar cell manufacturers in India. They only have a manufacturing capacity of 100 MW or higher.
The global market of solar wafer manufacturing is dominated by China.
India has imposed safeguard duties on import of solar equipment from Malaysia and China. However, these safeguard duties are of limited duration.