5 Indian petroleum PSUs to join Int'l solar alliance for clean energy transition: Pradhan

Five Indian state-owned oil and gas companies will be joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA)’s Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (ISA-CSCA) as Corporate Partners, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on Tuesday.

In his inaugural speech at the First World Solar Technology Summit organized by ISA, Pradhan said Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and GAIL (India) Limited will be contributing to ISA’s Corpus Fund.

"In order to reduce carbon footprint, these companies will be focusing more on green energy investments such as renewables, biofuels, and hydrogen going forward. We are also actively encouraging industry in general, and oil and gas companies in particular, become participants to this solar transition," Pradhan said, asserting that increasingly Indian oil companies are actively taking part in clean energy transition. 

Solar power capacity of 270 MW

On the achievements made in the sector so far, the Minister said Indian oil and gas companies are also making efforts to deploy solar panels across the value chain of their operations, and the current installed solar power capacity is 270 MW.

“Additional 60 MW solar capacity will be added in the coming year. We have taken up the mission of solarizing about 50% of fuel stations owned by Public Sector oil companies in the next five years. More than 5.000 fuel stations of Indian Oil were solarized last year. A substantial amount of solar PV capacity was also added by oil and gas companies during the last few years," he said.

Pradhan said under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’, India has received proposals from various players for over 10 GW of fresh solar equipment manufacturing. He said IOCL has tied up with M/s Sun Bucket System, a US-based start-up working in the niche area of solar energy-based products

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Lauding the role of the ISA for making rapid strides since its launch at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on 30 November 2015 by PM Modi and the then French President, Pradhan said that as the latest inter-governmental international organization with its headquarters in India, ISA is not only a testament to India's unwavering faith in multilateralism but also a commitment to a better, sustainable and greener future. He said that the Alliance reflects the vision and the firm belief that the beneficence of the Sun could be used to bring together the peoples of this planet for a shared solution to our energy needs.

"The oil and gas companies in India will work closely with ISA to explore opportunities for implementation of solar-based projects within India as well as in other countries," the Union Minister emphasized.  

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