National Roundtable on Agri-Renewables in India: A Double Engine Growth Strategy Jointly Organized by National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) and Indo German Energy Forum (IGEF -SO) with Hon’ble Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Lalit Bohra gave the keynote address at Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on 23rd August,11 PM.
"Our farmers should be the first to contribute to this when we become energy independent," said Pranav R Mehta, Chairman of NSEFI. "Government of India's objective to becoming energy independent by 2047. Our first aim should be to cope with the expanding energy requirements of the agricultural sector and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. India can achieve the aforementioned goals stated by the GOI by focusing on agri-renewable energy,” he further added.
The Honorary Director General of NSEFI, Deepak Gupta, IAS (Retd.), noted that India has enormous potential for solar energy and solar water pumps (both on-grid and off-grid).
In his keynote address, Lalit Bohra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, mentioned that by combining agriculture and renewable energy sources and reaping their mutual benefits, farmers may be able to enhance agricultural income in addition to lowering family expenses.
He also said in his speech that in addition to immediately enhancing land use, agri-renewables may also help in increasing the amount of energy required for farming, reducing water losses, and properly utilizing water while also adding an income source to the farmers.”
NSEFI and IGEF launched report "Legal Aspects of Agri-Photovoltaics in India" together with the chief guest and other guests. In addition, the NSEFI-IGEF Agrivoltaics website, a one-stop source for all information pertaining to AgriPV in India also launched.
Agri-Renewables and several organizations' experiences were discussed throughout the workshop, including ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, SunSeed APV, SunMaster, Fraunhofer Institute of India, and Shakti Pumps.
Speakers pointed out that the economics of using renewable energy to generate power from the agriculture sector will be a win-win situation. This method will address a number of problems at once, including climate change, the Food-Energy-Water Nexus, and increasing farmers' income.
