Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of States (AREAS) and Natural Resources Defense Council in partnership with the Uttar Pradesh New & Renewable Energy Development Agency and Self-Employed Women’s Association organized a two-day national workshop focusing on accelerating India’s clean-energy transition. State government representatives from over 25 Indian states were present along with clean energy technology developers and civil society institutions.

On the first day of the workshop, participants were taken to visit a compressed biogas plant in Barabanki followed by a tour of National Thermal Power Corporation’s 40 MW solar plant in Ayodhya. State representatives got insight into their operations while engaging with management of both plants.

(L-R) (Shri Jeevan Kumar, Executive Director, AREAS; Scientist F, MNRE, Shri Inderjit Singh, Director, UPNEDA, Smt. Rehana Riyawala, CEO, Grassroot Trading Network for Women, Self Employed Women’s Association, Smt. Dipa Singh Bagai, Country Director, NRDC India, Shri Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, Former Secretary, MNRE & Visiting Professor of Practice, IIT Kanpur)

The second day of the national workshop was inaugurated by Shri Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. “We need to understand and acknowledge the transformative impact of renewable energy (RE) on India’s citizens,” he said. “Renewable energy is presently the most powerful tool to empower individuals to be self-sustainable when it comes to electricity,” he added.

Shri Sarangi also highlighted how Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) is a great example of creating job opportunities in the rural areas and encouraged States to develop a skilling ecosystem where people are trained throughout the supply chain and work on innovative green financing models. Furthermore, he acknowledged that role of State Nodal Agencies (SNA) needs to be reevaluated, through methods such as a SWOT analysis; to address the evolving RE landscape and how SNAs can better work towards national climate targets.

The workshop hosted sessions on accelerating the adoption of RE, increasing clean energy financing and strengthening institutional capacities for driving RE. A breakaway session was also organized on different aspects of DRE technologies where State representatives discussed the challenges, solutions and actionable steps to further not only the adoption of DRE technology but also its efficient monitoring and evaluation.

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Navin Sreejith

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