Energy security has emerged a critical priority for India especially now in this uncertain geopolitical climate. And renewable energy, that can be generated locally without any expensive fuel imports, is one of the key pieces of this puzzle.
However, in order to be totally secure from global shocks and disruptions, either in the form of wars or trade barriers or demand-supply mismatch and others, it is also important to secure supply chains. Thus, it is vital for the country to develop strong capabilities in localisation of supply chains of equipment necessary for clean energy deployment.
Various steps have been taken by both the government and the clean energy industry in this regard. Successive policies, both trade and non-trade barriers, have been introduced by the policymakers to discourage imports and overdependence on a particular supply route. The industry has adjusted well to these interventions, and is now focusing on ramping up domestic manufacturing capabilities. This is true for many key renewable energy sectors like solar power, wind power, battery energy storage and electrolysers for green hydrogen.
What we need now is going a step further – and focusing on complete backward and forward integration, and creating the whole ecosystem for clean energy equipment manufacturing. This includes development of manufacturing bases for ancillary components, production of most (if not all) raw materials locally, building equipment for manufacturing lines within the country and also scaling up our critical minerals industry.
This will require significant investments, skilled human capital, expansion of our R&D facilities, as well as policy support from the government. Most of all, this herculean task will need immense collaboration between all stakeholder groups in the renewable energy sector to ensure energy security for generations to come.
