PM Modi Opens Bharat Renewable Energy Summit and Expo in Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit and Expo in Delhi. Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Shripad Naik were on the dais, along with industry leaders, investors and startup founders from India and abroad. The Prime Minister said this edition carried special weight because the year had been dominated by talk of an energy shock, which made the place of renewable energy in India's development path clearer than before.

Three events under one roof

The Prime Minister pointed out that the scope of this year's gathering was unusually wide. The 9th Assembly of the International Solar Alliance is being held within the same summit, and delegates attending the fourth conference on green hydrogen were also present. He linked the Alliance to India's message of One Earth, One Family, One Future, saying the aim is to carry funding, technology and expertise for renewable energy to every country that needs it. An Africa Solar Facility of 200 million dollars has been proposed for that purpose.

Capacity milestones named from the stage

At the climate summit of 2021 India had promised 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030, and about 300 GW of that stands built. The separate Paris pledge of drawing half of installed power capacity from non-fossil sources was met in 2025, five years ahead of schedule, and more than 50 per cent of installed capacity is now non-fossil. India is among the top three countries in solar power. The next effort, the Prime Minister said, is to add another 500 GW of non-fossil capacity over the coming ten to eleven years.

Schemes, grids and factories

• Rooftop solar has reached more than 65 lakh homes, with a lakh of new homes joining every six days and bills falling by about 76 per cent
• Over 44 thousand government buildings run on solar energy, saving roughly 700 crore rupees each year
• More than 30 lakh farmers have solar-powered irrigation, saving close to a lakh rupees a year each
• The green hydrogen mission targets 50 lakh tonnes of production by the close of this decade, and the country has already run its first green hydrogen train

Money coming into the sector

Five regional grids have been welded into one integrated network running on a single frequency, and green energy corridors carry solar and wind power from surplus regions to places of demand, with an investment target of about 2 lakh crore rupees set for the next stage. Solar module manufacturing capacity has climbed from roughly 2 GW a decade ago to over 200 GW, and solar cell capacity to about 40 GW. Renewable energy drew more than 15 lakh crore rupees, or 164 billion dollars, in the past decade, of which over 6 lakh crore rupees arrived in the two years since the investment summit of 2024.