Union Power Minister, Piyush Goyal addressed a meeting of high level gathering of US companies in the renewable energy development and financing sector in Washington, US.
Asking US firms to come up with innovative solutions to address India's massive energy needs, Energy minister, Piyush Goyal said that India is already Asia's third largest such economy, and is set to become the largest clean energy market in the next decade.
Mr Goyal was addressing a meeting of high level gathering of US companies in the renewable energy development and financing sector.
While acknowledging constraining factors, the minister asked American companies to be a partner in this process and to help come up with innovative solutions so as not to miss out on the tremendous opportunity in India which is set to become the largest clean energy market in the next 10 years, said a statement.
Addressing the concerns and challenges faced by investors in India, Mr Goyal laid out the government's vision for achieving the ambitious target of 175 Giga Watts of clean energy by 2022, a media release said.
Mr Goyal also said that the government was looking for a long term and sustainable solution to the problem of fiscal health of power distribution companies, which will be implemented soon.
The meeting was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the American Council on a Renewable Energy (ACORE).
Yesterday, CII and ACORE signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help solidify and bolster cooperation in the clean energy sector through facilitation of dialogues between industry experts, the development of platforms to deepen cooperation as well as platforms to exchange policy recommendations and best practices.
Director General of CII, Chandrajit Banerjee said that Indian industry stands ready to partner and work with the government to achieve the ambitious target set by the Prime Minister.
According to chairman of Renew a Power Ventures, Sumant Sinha, out of a total of USD 150 million required for financing the clean energy space, USD 100 million will be debt and USD 50 million will be equity. "The US can play a big role in this space in India," he said.
The US companies which attended the meeting included SunEdison, Bank of America, First Solar, Credit Suisse, Apex clean energy, Sun Power and Deutsche Bank.