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"The Advantage Assam 2.0 - Investment & Infrastructure Summit 2025" hosted a pivotal session on "Decarbonizing Energy in Assam - Present Scenario", underscoring Assam's commitment to advancing a sustainable, low-carbon energy future.
This forward-looking session, held on February 26, 2025, brought together several luminaries to explore Assam's current energy landscape, ongoing decarbonization efforts, and future opportunities in clean energy transition. The session featured Prasanta Phukan, Minister of Power, Government of Assam, Jishnu Barua, Chairperson, CERC; Vivek Kumar Dewangan, CMD, REC Ltd; Kaushik Sanyal, National Head - Renewables, Tata Power Company Limited, Dr. K.K. Dwivedi, Principal Secretary, Power Department, Government of Assam, Syedain Abbasi, Chairman, APDCL, and Samit Mitra, Managing Director - Country Delivery, India, GEAPP. The session commenced with a welcome address by Dr. K.K. Dwivedi, who emphasized the crucial role of clean energy in Assam's development journey. Noting that the power scenario in Assam has improved immensely, Dwivedi shared that several new projects have been taken up in solar power and other areas and lot of efforts are being made to enhance power generation. The focus in Assam, as per Dwivedi, is on generating clean and renewable energy aligning with the nation's greater interest. Earlier, setting the context for the panel discussion, Abbasi stressed Assam's role in India's broader clean energy mission. During the panel discussion, Abbasi also stated that Assam has emerged as a role model across the country for utilizing solar energy in the Assam Secretaria. He suggested the possibility of enhancement of the renewable energy generation by utilizing unused land and stated that the Government is working to identify such areas. Speaking on the context, Bibek Kumar Dewangan, CMD, REC Ltd, highlighted Assam's potential to become a leader in renewable energy adoption, ensuring a cleaner and greener future for the state. He mentioned solar, wind, and geothermal energy as areas where Assam can look towards for increasing its energy output. Jishnu Barua, Chairperson, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, gave a brief sketch of the overall scenario of the country in terms its power sector. He stressed the need to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities to turn Assam into a major energy powerhouse. Kaushik Sanyal, National Head, Renewables, Tata Power Company Limited, underlined that Assam has one of the best policies in clean energy. Stating that every year about 6 lakh people in the country die due to pollution, he reaffirmed TATA's commitment to invest in the power sector in Assam. Samit Mitra, Managing director- Country Delivery, India, GEAPP, shared innovative solutions and also stressed the necessity to forge public-private collaborations in decarbonizing Assam's energy sector. Bringing the discussion to a close, Prasanta Phukan, Minister of Power, Government of Assam, explained the mission and vision of the Government of Assam for generating renewable energy in the state and reaffirmed the state's strong commitment to decarbonization. At the same time, the Minister also announced measures and initiatives and schemes undertaken by the Government of Assam to ramp up energy production, particularly in the solar, hydro, biomass and waste energy, and green energy sectors. He also outlined upcoming renewable energy projects and Assam's leadership in implementing progressive energy policies to reduce carbon emissions while ensuring energy accessibility. The session reaffirmed the collective vision of government bodies, industry stakeholders, and energy innovators to drive Assam's clean energy transition, aligning with the global climate agenda.(ANI)
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