“Renewables is just one aspect of it. But I think, downstream, things beyond renewables—green hydrogen, for example—hopefully, will allow us to decrease this dependence on imports,” said Sinha

As of now, corporates are going for clean electricity as step one, but eventually there will be other opportunities to decarbonise their entire operations, said ReNew Power MD Sumant Sinha

The incentives and subsidies being planned by other countries for green hydrogen manufacturing are going to pose a stiff challenge for India if it does not review its strategy, said ReNew Power’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Sumant Sinha. In an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol at the India Energy Week 2023 in Bengaluru, Sinha also said that from focusing only on renewables, the company now intends to also help corporates with their decarbonisation strategies.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

At the India Energy Week’s inaugural ceremony, the prime minister said going ahead, India’s energy growth would be the highest in the world. We have done a lot of things in different segments of energy, whether it’s hydrocarbons or clean energy. What are the gaps that still need to be plugged?

There are some fundamental issues in India. As you know, India is probably the biggest fossil fuel importer. We do about $150 billion or more of energy imports every year. We even import things like coal and so on. I would say that the whole energy sector in India needs a lot of work, which the government is certainly targeting to do, in terms of decreasing our imports and increasing our energy security.

Renewables is just one aspect of it. But I think, downstream, things beyond renewables—green hydrogen, for example—hopefully, will allow us to decrease this dependence on imports. I think it will take many decades for us to work on that and the prime minister, of course, has set a target of 2047 to become energy independent. This is going to require trillions of dollars of investments.