Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India’s rapidly expanding economy will require its energy demand to grow, creating one of the world’s biggest opportunities for investment, technology partnerships and energy collaboration with the United States, industry leaders said
Speaking at a US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit panel on energy security and infrastructure, ExxonMobil’s Director of Economics and Energy, Dr Prasanna Joshi, said India’s growth trajectory stood apart from every major economy.
“Our outlook is projecting that the global GDP will essentially double in the next 25 years, whereas India… going almost a factor of seven to eight times… to 25 to 30 trillion dollars,” Joshi said.
“Energy demand is expected to grow only about 12 to 15 per cent in the next 25 years. For India, that number is a factor of three.”
He said India’s ambitious growth plans would require massive investments across the entire energy value chain.
Joshi said India would need every available energy source to meet future demand while maintaining energy security and supporting economic growth.
He noted that India’s installed electricity generation capacity currently stands at about 500 gigawatts, with the country’s long-term ambition to increase that to around 2,100 GW by 2047.
Renewable energy alone presents enormous opportunities for investment, he said.
“The projection for solar and wind is… 100 gigawatts have to go to about 1,800 gigawatts… there’s so much opportunity for investment and opportunity for collaboration in India.”
