Solar Energy and the Union Budget 2024: An Overview

India is growing, and with development comes the requirement of making the country more dependent on solar energy. India is driving exponential growth in the sector, but we still need to reach the 2030 target.

The current scenario and Union Budget

Solar Energy holds a considerable share of approximately 36% of India’s installed renewable energy capacity. On the other hand, Hydropower plants and wind energy have 31 and 25 percent of shares, respectively.

The government is trying to help the sector with different policies and reductions in the prices of raw materials, which have led to a tremendous increase in the overall capacity the previous year, but a lot more is needed to meet the required needs.

Here are some of the highlights of this year’s Solar Energy Budget that will impact the solar sector in India

• The Union Finance Minister of India allocated Rs 10,222 crore for the renewable energy sector. A huge amount of this allocation will be given to solar energy and solar panel set-up
• This is an average increase of 48 percent from last year’s allocation.
• A focus is made on “green growth”, which will include boosting the usage of green fuel, farming, and even green energy.
• Solar energy will play a significant role in “green growth”, reducing carbon emission intensity and dependency on fossil fuels for energy.

Green Energy is the main focus:

Green energy remains the government’s focus, and India is looking towards solar energy to meet its goals. Moreover, with more and more battery and pump storage, renewable energy sources will be boosted.

Green Energy is one of the 7 top priorities in the 2024 budget. Making India free from harmful carbon emissions and creating green jobs is a part of the budget. In addition, an amount of Rs. 35,000 Cr. is earmarked as a capital investment for the energy transition, which can be a game changer. The final goal here is to boost the Net Zero journey, which focuses on zero dependence on non-renewable sources of energy.

With the help of Green energy, dependence on carbon and other forms of non-renewable sources of energy will become lesser and lesser. It will be very beneficial in saving the environment and fossil fuels; on the other hand, it will significantly relax the Indian economy.

Massive investment for a sustainable future:

The considerable investment made by the government in this year’s budget is not only going to give a significant boost to the Indian economy, but on the other hand, it is also going to create numerous opportunities. It will help provide more dependence on domestic and indigenous products regarding energy production and, on the other hand, will create new job opportunities for people in the field. Union Budget 2023 aims to make India among the established leaders in the global green energy transition.

The government has highlighted not only the production of renewable energy, such as solar energy but also has focused on processing and storing this energy. Therefore, with such remarkable findings, one can get easy and affordable solutions that enable renewable energy processing and make India more dependent on it.

The union budget also focuses on improving the infrastructure for the renewal of energy production and processing.

India is a growing country, and with its growing need, energy consumption has also increased drastically. Switching the dependence on energy from non-renewable to renewable, sustainable sources is necessary, and it is a need of time. The government has allocated a substantial sum towards green growth and has identified it as one of the seven crucial pillars of the budget. This allocation presents a favourable trajectory for the country’s sustainability efforts and the power sector in India.