India would be a market of good returns for renewable energy (RE) firms as the demand for power is set to treble as the country seeks to catch up with the world average in per capita power consumption, said RK Singh, Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy, on Thursday.

“Our capacity is going to double, if not treble. And bulk of it is going to come from RE,” the Minister said while addressing a curtain raiser event of the third edition of RE-Invest to be organised here between October 30 and November 2. He invited global RE firms to invest in India saying “India is the place to be if you want to invest in RE.”

Currently per capita power consumption in India is 1,189 units as against the global average of 3,600 units. This offers a great opportunity for the firms to invest in this sunrise sector as they can expect greater and assured returns, Singh said.

In the first quarter of this year, the power demand grew by 6.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis. In the last 17 months we have added 26.4 million new consumers and according to the International Energy Agency, it was the largest expansion of access in a short time-frame and the pace of installation in India will not slacken, he said.

The Minister also assured the industry representatives that whatever regulatory issues that come in the way would be sorted out.

Regarding RE-Invest, Anand Kumar, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy Secretary, said 50,000 delegates from 115 countries are expected to participate. European Union, Germany, France, Denmark and the US would hold country sessions at the global meet, which will have 220 speakers.

According to him, more than $100 billion investment has come into the sector already and another $30 billion is underway. India’s aim to add an RE capacity of 450 to 500 GW by 2030 will need an additional $80 billion by 2022, which will take the total to $400 billion by 2030.

The second General Assembly of the International Solar Allaince (ISA), would also be held concurrently during the RE-Invest. According to ISA Secretary General Upendra Tripathy, 76 countries are already signatory to ISA and 54 of them have also ratified it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the total number of signatories to go up to 100 by October 2, 2019, which would be Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary, Tripathy said.

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