India’s infrastructure push needs energy

India’s ambitious infrastructure push needs more energy sources, while the country must manage its growing energy demand, and find affordable solutions and green inputs to take it successfully into the future. That was the message Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered at the launch of the second annual India Energy Week.

He was speaking after inaugurating the event, which runs until February 9 at the ONGC’s sprawling campus in Goa, on the west coast of India. The event is organised by FIPI – the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry – and dmg::events and held under the patronage of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, GoI, with ONGC as the principal partner. Last year, this event was held for the first time in Bengaluru.

India, the Prime Minister said, was itself a major player in the world energy market. He pointed out that the country was already the third largest nation worldwide in energy consumption, oil consumption, LPG consumption and the fourth largest LNG importer, and the fourth largest automotive market globally too. India, he said, was now investing in energy at a level it had never done in the past. EV sales were also growing.

He pointed to India’s continuing push to building infrastructure, highlighting the recent budget allocation of US$ 11 trillion and pointing out it was “an important part was for the energy sector itself”. He said infrastructure was being boosted in rail, roadways, waterways and airways, reminding those gathered “greater infrastructure will need greater energy (inputs)”.

India is pushing towards a greater input of natural gas in its primary energy mix, he said. India already has the world’s biggest refinery (at Jamnagar) with a goal to raise the country’s capacity of 254 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) refining capacity to 450 MMTPA by the year 2030. Hon’ble Prime Minister Modi referred to the Global Biofuel Alliance, which had been launched at the G20 Summit, under India’s chairpersonship, in 2023. This brought together 22 countries and 12 international organisations in a short time, together with the promise of billions of dollars in assistance.

This organisation, an initiative of India as the G20 chair, brings together the biggest consumers and producers to biofuels to drive development and deployment of biofuels, seen as key to energy transition, and contribute to creating jobs and economic growth. India was also making progress in green hydrogen, with the setting up of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, launched in Jan 2023, and an emphasis of greater investment and the involvement of industry, he added. This mission aims to help develop support chains to transport and distribute hydrogen.

Mr Modi said that despite having 17 percent of the global population, India’s contribution to carbon emissions was just 4% of the global total. He said the goal was to make the country have net-zero emissions by 2070. India’s solar energy capacity had grown vastly, he added, and said: “Our renewable energy installed capacity already ranks in the fourth position worldwide”. Solar was being taken to India’s villages, he said, so that families could become self-reliant in energy, and possibly contribute back to the grid too.

Saying it was apt to host India Energy Week 2024 in“energy-filled Goa” (a reference to its popularity as a tourist destination), the Hon’ble Prime Minister pointed to India’s GDP growth and being the “fastest growing economy” worldwide, alongside optimistic International Monetary Fund predictions.

India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said that at a “crucial juncture in the global economy, with multiple crises” it was important to ensure availability, affordability and sustainability of energy while prioritising the country’s energy security. “India is becoming a demand centre for global energy,” he said.

Mr Singh Puri appreciated the growth of India Energy Week, which had 30% more exhibitors this year, with a footfall of 35,000 visitors expected, and some 350 global companies taking part. There would be some 46 strategic sessions and 46 technical sessions, he said, together with 300 start-ups and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) taking part in the make-in-India section.

He said India was able to ensure its prices for energy were “among the lowest in the world” and over a two-year period, the prices of fuel had declined. “India played the role of a unifier in a deeply divided world to ensure that energy supplies were not disrupted,” the minister added.

Speaking earlier, the Goa chief minister Dr Pramod Sawant said India’s smallest state hoped to contribute to green energy by focusing on the speedy growth of solar and wind and speeded electric vehicle penetration by 2027.

He called on domestic and international investors to come up with green energy solutions, solar, wind and other emerging technology proposals. “Our government is committed to creating pools of skilled workforce, our vision is sustainable development,” he added. Earlier Prime Minister Modi visited and dedicated to the nation the country’s first Sea Survival Training Centre at the ONGC campus in Goa. Participants from some 120 countries are taking part in this event.