The Indian prime minister inaugurated India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The IEW is aimed to showcase India’s rising prowess as an energy transition powerhouse. As part of the event, he also launched ‘E20 fuel’ and flagged off green mobility rally organised by the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited on behalf of oil and gas public sector undertakings and PLL.
In line with the ethanol blending roadmap, the prime minister launched E20 fuel at 84 retail outlets of oil marketing companies in 11 states and UTs. E20 is a blend of 20 per cent ethanol with petrol. The government aims to achieve a complete 20 per cent blending of ethanol by 2025, and HPCL and other oil marketing companies are setting up 2G-3G ethanol plants that will facilitate the progress.
Ethanol Blending programme has been a key focus area of the Indian government to achieve ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in the field of energy. Due to the sustained efforts of the government, ethanol production capacity has increased six times since 2013-14. The achievements in the course of the last eight years under the Ethanol Blending Program and Biofuels Program have not only augmented India’s energy security but have also resulted in a host of other benefits including reduction of 31,800,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and foreign exchange savings of around Rs 540 billion. As a result, there has been payment of around Rs 818 billion towards ethanol supplies during 2014 to 2022 and transfer of more than Rs 490 billion to farmers.
The prime minister also flagged off the ‘Green Mobility Rally’ organised by HPCL. The rally witnessed participation of 57 vehicles running on sustainable green energy sources like E20, E85, flex fuel, hydrogen, electric amongst many others.
