Top government official bats for decentralised renewable energy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Sustainable Development Goal 7, or SDG7, with the International Energy Agency predicting that nearly 660 million people will not have access to electricity by 2030, a top government official said on Thursday, batting for decentralised renewable energy (DRE). Speaking on the sidelines of a G20 Energy Transitions Working Group meeting, R P Gupta, chairman and managing director of Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited, called DRE a potent solution to energy requirements. DRE sources include rooftop solar panels and similar production facilities located closer to the site of energy consumption.

SDG 7 aims at ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. Gupta said the gap in energy access was bridged by 300 million households between 2010 and 2020. «However, as per data from International Energy Agency, 660 million people will remain away from electricity even by 2030, which is also the deadline for all of us to achieve SDG7,» he said.

Gupta said that the brunt of energy poverty is borne by poor households in rural and remote areas and mostly this appears in Africa and Asia. «The progress of attaining sustainable and equitable growth will become challenging if the quality and availability of energy sources are not met,» he said. Gupta said that the indicators of progress like health, education, employment, gender inclusion and even mental well-being are linked to universal access to clean energy.

He said DRE is a potent solution to energy requirements. «Their decentralized nature allows them to tap the locally available energy resources,» Gupta said. He pointed out that in 2021, as per available data, 179 million people gained access to electricity through DRE solutions, up from