Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Friday that India's ongoing renewable energy capacity expansion programmes will make the country the centre of the International Solar Alliance Project.

Delivering keynote address at CEEW Renewable Energy Dialogue-2018 in New Delhi, Suresh Prabhu said that India is running one of the largest and most ambitious renewable energy capacity expansion programmes in the world.

When achieved, this will place India at the centre of its Sunshine Countries' International Solar Alliance Project, which is promoting the growth and development of solar power in over 120 countries, he added.

Prabhu said that India has set a target of achieving 40% of its total electricity generation non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. He said that International Solar Alliance is sending positive market signals therefore all countries want to invest in renewables encouraging new technologies to be made available thereby promoting financial investments in renewables.

He further said that the Government of India’s target of installing 20 GW of solar power by 2022 was achieved four years of ahead of schedule in January, 2018 through solar parks and India has set a fresh target of achieving 100 GW of solar power by 2022.

The Dialogue brought together several national and international stakeholders from the renewable energy community to deliberate on the drivers and challenges facing the sector, both in India and globally.

Independent studies on scaling up rooftop solar panels, clean energy investment trends, addressing renewable energy curtailment, and risks in renewable energy markets in emerging economies were released at the Dialogue.

The Renewable Energy Dialogue was organised by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in collaboration with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), International Solar Alliance (ISA), International Energy Agency (IEA), Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), and REN21.

This edition of the Dialogue had a special focus on market creation and market trends.