Industry flags high costs, infra gaps as roadblocks to renewable push

India's renewable energy sector has witnessed growth but continues to face several challenges, including high capital costs, gaps between green energy generation and transmission, and high storage expenses, key representatives of the industry said during a panel discussion at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit on Thursday.

- BS REPORTER

The panelists — Vaishali Nigam Sinha, co-founder of green energy firm ReNew, Gauri Singh, deputy director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, and Prashant Choubey, president of renewable energy company Avaada Group — were speaking with A K Bhattacharya of Business Standard.

Citing a few roadblocks for renewable energy generation, Sinha said: "We get over 300 days of sunlight, which means there is enough opportunity to put up solar farms, but land acquisition is an issue. The cost of capital in India has been on the higher side, which has been a deterrent for global institutions to invest more in the sector. Another roadblock is that our pace of energy generation is faster than transmission development."