India set to revolutionise its kitchens with solar power, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi

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India intends to start revolutionising its kitchens, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was delivering his inaugural address at the India Energy Week 2023 in Bengaluru today.

The prime minister also launched the twin-cooktop model of the Indian Oil Corporation’s indoor solar cooking system, launching its commercial production. He said the cooktop was going to give a new dimension to green and clean cooking in the country.

The Prime Minister said that in the last nine years, India had successfully connected more than 19 crore people to clean cooking fuel.

Modi further emphasized that more than three crore households would have access to solar cooktops in the next two-three years. With over 25 crore people using solar cooktops, this would revolutionize Indian kitchens.

Today in India there was a mass movement in the energy transition. This was happening in two ways, the first being the large-scale adoption of renewable sources and the second being homes, villages and airports running on solar power and the use of solar pumps in agriculture.

Quoting International Energy Association, the Prime Minister remarked that India’s energy demands would be highest in the present decade which presents an opportunity for the investors and stakeholders of the energy sector. He informed that India’s share in the global oil demand was 5% which was expected to rise to 11%, whereas the gas demand of India was expected to rise to 500%.

With the use of LED bulbs, smart meters, the adoption of electric vehicles, etc. there was a rapid shift towards energy conservation. Briefly touching upon battery cost in EVs, Modi said that batteries currently accounted for 40-50% of the cost of the car. However, the government had begun a PLI scheme worth Rs. 18,000 crores which would[PC1]  be significant in manufacturing advanced chemistry cells of 50-gigawatt hours.

Modi said that in the budget the government had given enough space to renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transportation and green technologies. Around Rs. 35,000 crores had been earmarked for capital investments in energy transition and net zero objectives. The provision for 10 lakh crore rupees capital expenditure would give a push to green hydrogen, solar to road infrastructure, he added.

The prime minister explained four major verticals for the strategy for the energy sector. First, increasing domestic exploration and production, diversifying the supply, and third, expanding fuels like biofuel, ethanol, compressed biogas and solar. Fourth, de-carbonization via electric vehicles and hydrogen. Elaborating on these verticals the prime minister said India was the fourth largest country for its refining capacity. Efforts were on to increase the capacity to 450 MMTPA from the current capacity of 250 MMTPA. “We are continuously making our refining capacity indigenous, modern and upgraded”, he said. Similarly, India was working to enhance petrochemical production capacity.

The prime minister informed that the government was working on a mission mode to increase the consumption of natural gas in our energy mix from 6% to 15% by 2030 where all the needed infrastructure would be provided by ‘One Nation One Grid’. “The government is trying to increase the capacity of LNG Terminal regasification”, the prime minister said. He further added that the terminal regasification capacity of 21 MMTPA had doubled in 2022 while efforts were being made to increase it even more. He also added that the number of CGDs in the country had gone up 9 times and the number of CNG stations had gone up to 5,000 from 900 in 2014. The prime minister also touched upon the gas pipeline network which had increased to 22,000 kilometres from 14,000 in 2014 and pointed out that the network would expand to 35,000 kilometres in the next 4-5 years. 

Regarding bio-energy expansion, the prime minister talked about the first 2G ethanol bio-refinery in August last year and said that preparation was for 12 commercial 2G ethanol plants. Similarly, efforts were in the direction of the commercial feasibility of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. Mentioning the provisions of this year’s budget the prime minister informed about 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ Gobardhan plants, 200 compressed biogas plants and 300 community-based plants which would create new avenues of investments.

“The National Green Hydrogen Mission will give a new direction to the India of the 21st century”, the prime minister remarked. He underlined that the country was aiming to produce 5 MMTPA green hydrogen by the end of this decade which brought in the possibility of investments of more than Rs 8 lakh crore. He also added that India would increase the share of green hydrogen to 25% by replacing grey hydrogen.

PM Modi also said that India had an enormous responsibility on its shoulders with G-20 Presidency and the ongoing event was expected to provide a major fillip in energy transformation.