Goyal woos investors in US to invest in India's $1 trillion energy investment plans

Eyeing an investment of $1 trillion in the energy sector, India’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal is wooing global investors including private equity firms such as Blackstone and Warburg Pincus in the US to invest in Indian energy sector. Highlighting the initiatives taken by the government to make India more business friendly, Mr Goyal assured global investors that the India is taking all steps that are necessary to sustain the current economic growth and it will continue with all major initiatives to enhance the ease of doing business. He also held meetings with the Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzian, Warburg Pincus’ Saurabh Agarwal and New York Green Bank President Alfred Griffin. Mr Goyal visited the US from 20 to 22April to participate in the launch of programmes under International Solar Alliance at the United Nations, New York.

He highlighted the need of India to have low cost, long tenor finance for his ambitious renewable energy scale of and requested investors to look at India for investments and take advantage of three Ds — democracy, demography and demand, according to the India’s Power Ministry.

Mr Goyal, who is on a visit to drum up investments in the energy sector, said in New York that India will be the largest market for energy with its goal of quadrupling by 2030 the current consumption of 1,050 units per person. Potential investors will see the opportunities India has to offer them in the energy as the US, Europe and Japan are seeing an economic slowdown coupled with a lowering of demand because of greater efficiencies in consumption, he said. “India will need $250 billion in the next five to six years and $1 trillion by 2030, a scale of investment “unparalleled anywhere in the world,” to fuel its race to provide energy for its people and help lift masses out of poverty,” he added.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of having 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2022, of which 100 GW is to come from solar. India has made strides towards achieving that target and 21 GW of solar energy is to come on line over the next seven to eight months. Mr Goyal said that he had met investors in Britain and visited the London Stock Exchange to showcase the investment opportunities and was to hold discussions with investors in the US.

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