The US side lauded India for electrifying 28.02 million homes in 18 months and achieved universal household electrification

Union Minister for Power and Renewable Energy R K Singh on Monday met a delegation led by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in New Delhi and discussed further collaboration between the two countries on the climate change issue.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Power, the US side appreciated India for its energy access drive and commitment to achieve 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030.

The US side also lauded India for electrifying 28.02 million homes in 18 months and achieved universal household electrification.

The Power Minister, as per the statement, informed the US side about the Government of India’s intent to move towards a clean energy transition.

He further informed that the biggest challenge for infusing renewable energy was “Storage” which needs to be addressed immediately to make power accessible to the masses.

He mentioned that huge bids for Green Hydrogen and Electrolyzers are planned in the upcoming months.

The Union Minister requested the US side to send their companies to participate in the bids. He also highlighted India’s upcoming projects in Ladakh on Green Hydrogen and Green Energy Corridors.

The US Presidential Envoy proposed that his country is willing to enter into a genuine collaboration with India to enable it realize the ambitious target of reaching 450 GW renewable energy by 2030 which would pave the way to India achieving sub 2°C level, much more than what has been committed under Paris Climate Agreement.

Singh showed his concern towards over 800 million people across the world, who do not have access to electricity. He urged the US side to join the International Solar Alliance which can benefit many countries.

Both sides agreed that Indian labs could work with the US labs with the objective of reducing costs and finding alternative chemistry for making energy transition economically viable.

According to the Ministry, John Kerry highlighted that India and the US could take a Global Leadership role on the Energy Transition front and show the rest of the world that ambitious renewable energy targets can be achieved.

The US side informed that both India and the US have similar goals and share the same zeal towards climate change issues and this partnership would be an inspiration to the rest of the world to revise their Nationally Determined Goals (NDCs) and strengthen the fight towards climate change.