State run-Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd aims to invest Rs 1 lakh crore to scale up its renewable energy capacity to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 from 189 megawatts at the end of 2022-23, Chairman Arun Kumar Singh told reporters.
Global oil giants, including Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Total, are pivoting to low-carbon businesses as pressure mounts on them to respond to the climate crisis. ONGC plans to align itself with India’s ambitious target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2070.
“The country’s energy demand will keep going up. It's not that fossil fuel demand in India will go down; for others, it may go down by 2030 but India will still see growing fossil fuel demand till 2040,” Singh said.
“But we have to step up our effort for green energy so that at least 2070 we are net zero,” he said.
Singh said that ONGC wants to focus on round-the-clock renewable energy projects and the company’s research centre is working on such solutions.
“Battery storage would depend on how viable it is. Non-battery solutions are also an option; it is capital intensive which is something ONGC is very good at,” Singh said, explaining that the company is ready to commit capital to large-scale RTC projects.
ONGC has signed a pact with the Rajasthan government to set up 5 GW of renewable energy projects and is on the lookout for opportunities to develop another 5GW. The company is exploring offshore wind energy projects and is keen to set up a 1 million tonne per annum capacity of Green Ammonia.
In its traditional business, the company plans a capital expenditure of Rs 30,125 crore in 2023-24 as against Rs 30,208 crore in the previous year, financed primarily from internal accruals.
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