The Grid Corporation of Odisha (GRIDCO) and India’s largest hydropower development corporation, NHPC, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of pumped storage projects and renewable energy. The MoU envisages setting up storage projects of at least 2,000 megawatts and renewable energy projects (on-ground and floating solar projects) of at least 1,000 megawatts in the state, an official release by the Ministry of Power said. The MoU was signed on June 23, 2023, by Executive Director (Strategy Business Development and Consultancy), NHPC, Rajat Gupta and Managing Director, GRIDCO Limited, Trilochan Panda; in the presence of Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Energy, Government of Odisha cum Chairperson, GRIDCO, Nikunja B. Dhal; Director (Projects), NHPC Limited, Biswajit Basu.
India has taken several path path-breaking decisions as part of its carbon reduction plans.
At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to an ambitious five-part “Panchamrit” pledge, including reaching 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, to generate half of all energy requirements from renewables, to reduce emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030. India also intends to lower the emissions intensity of GDP by 45%. Finally, India has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
