Ahmad Chatila, Chief Executive Officer of SunEdison, Inc. (NYSE: SUNE), has met with President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in New Delhi.
“It’s a great honor to be invited to meet with President Obama and Prime Minister Modi to discuss how renewable energy can benefit the people of both India and America,” said Mr. Chatila.
“We have recently signed agreements to develop 10 gigawatts of solar energy in India within the next 5 years. Solar is now a cost effective source of energy in India, and as it’s supported by the Indian government’s strong leadership in energy policy, I anticipate even more rapid growth in the future.”
In October 2014, SunEdison signed an Memorandum of Understanding with the government of the Indian state of Rajasthan to build 5GW of mega-scale grid-connected solar plants in the state. Earlier this month, SunEdison also announced it would be developing five gigawatts of solar energy and wind power in the state of Karnataka over the next five years.
As well as high profile, large-scale solar projects, SunEdison is also working to bring clean, reliable electricity to impoverished communities in India through the construction of solar power micro-grids; part of its Eradication Of Darkness program.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is considered a “champion of solar“. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), clean energy investments reached USD $7.9bn in India during 2014, largely driven by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s election to office in May last year.
India is the 7th largest clean energy investor in the world.
“After two years of continuous decline in investments, in both India and around the world, the trend reversed last year. We expect investment in India to rise in 2015 and later, particularly with the rise of solar power,” said Bharat Bhushan Agrawal, BNEF’s lead India solar analyst.
BNEF has forecasted 2,500MW of new solar capacity will be added in India this year; a 1.5 times increase over last year. Wind power installations have been pegged to reach 2,800MW – up 22% from last year.
