Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asserted that India's economic growth remains strong despite the ongoing crisis in West Asia, and said the country is set to add around 500 gigawatts of renewable and non-fossil energy capacity over the next 10 to 11 years.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit and Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, the Prime Minister said India had already built nearly 300 gigawatts of non-fossil installed power capacity, and was firmly on course to meet its earlier target of 500 gigawatts by 2030. The four-day summit, themed "Invest. Innovate. Inspire.", runs from November 2 to 5, 2026.
"In the coming 10 to 11 years, our effort will be to add 500 GW of new non-fossil capacity. This target is somewhat difficult, but I have faith in the capabilities of our country. And therefore, I say - we will do it!" Modi said, drawing applause from the audience of investors, industry leaders and policymakers.
The Prime Minister linked energy security directly to economic security, arguing that the global energy crisis, including the West Asia conflict, had demonstrated how quickly disruptions in one region can shake economies everywhere. He said the West Asia crisis had disrupted energy supplies around the world earlier this year and created difficulties for many countries, but that India's growth had stayed high through that period.
"If India had not created renewable energy capacity in the last 10 years, then the energy crisis in India could have been worse than in other parts of the world," he said. "India's economic growth is high despite the ongoing West Asia crisis." The point, he suggested, was that a decade of investment in clean energy had given India a cushion that many other economies did not have, and that the country should now press that advantage further.
The numbers behind the claim are striking. According to data from the Central Electricity Authority cited in reporting on the speech, India currently has 308 gigawatts of installed non-fossil capacity, about 55.1 per cent of total power generation capacity of 558.89 gigawatts.
More than 50 per cent of India's installed power capacity is now from non-fossil sources, a milestone the country achieved in 2025, five years ahead of the 2030 deadline under its Paris climate commitments. Under that pledge, India had set a target of meeting half of its installed capacity from non-fossil sources; it reached the mark early.
Modi said India is also working resolutely towards the target of 500 gigawatts of non-fossil capacity by 2030, and has already achieved nearly 300 gigawatts. The additional 500 gigawatts planned over the next decade would therefore be on top of that, effectively doubling the clean energy base the country has built so far.
He described India's clean energy journey as one of "promises, passion and performance", and said the country is now among the top three in the world in solar and renewable energy.
The economic opportunity, he said, is enormous. Investment opportunities worth more than Rs 20 lakh crore, or around 220 billion dollars, are expected to emerge in the renewable energy sector by the end of the decade, as the country expands generation, transmission infrastructure, manufacturing and energy storage.
More than 164 billion dollars has already been invested in the sector over the past decade, according to the Prime Minister, and the next wave of spending will be larger still.
The summit itself is designed to convert that opportunity into deals. By bringing investors together with state governments, manufacturers and developers under one roof, the government hopes to accelerate projects in solar power, wind, green hydrogen, battery storage and the transmission lines needed to carry clean power from where it is generated to where it is used.
Modi urged investors to seize the moment, pointing to solar connections in public infrastructure and to the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims for 50 lakh tonnes of annual green hydrogen production capacity by the end of the decade.
The speech also carried a broader message about resilience. The Prime Minister noted that the global economy has faced an extraordinary run of shocks in recent years, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the West Asia crisis, and said India has managed these crises better so far than many other countries.
Growth, he argued, has remained high not by accident but because of deliberate choices: building domestic capacity, diversifying energy sources, and investing in infrastructure before a crisis forced the country's hand.
Critics will note that targets are easier to announce than to achieve. Adding 500 gigawatts in a decade means commissioning, on average, roughly 50 gigawatts a year, along with the storage and grid upgrades needed to absorb intermittent solar and wind power. Land acquisition, financing, and the pace of transmission construction will all test the ambition.
The government's answer, implicit in the Prime Minister's speech, is that the last decade shows the pace is achievable: India went from a marginal player in solar power to one of the world's top three, and it met its 50 per cent non-fossil milestone five years early.
For households and businesses, the stakes are practical. Cheaper renewable power, if delivered at scale, can lower electricity costs, reduce exposure to volatile imported fuel prices, and clean the air in cities that still depend heavily on coal. For the economy as a whole, the bet is that energy independence and industrial growth can advance together, with clean energy manufacturing itself becoming a source of jobs and exports.
The harder part of the plan lies not in putting up solar panels or wind turbines, but in everything around them. Solar power arrives in the middle of the day and wind power comes and goes with the weather, so a grid built around them needs storage, stronger transmission lines and smarter ways of matching supply with demand.
The Prime Minister's reference to investment in transmission infrastructure, manufacturing and energy storage reflects exactly that challenge: the next decade of growth will be judged as much by batteries and wires as by panels and turbines.
As the summit continues through the week, attention will turn from speeches to specifics: which states sign new agreements, which companies commit fresh capital, and whether the investment pipeline matches the scale of the Prime Minister's promise. The target is now public, the timeline is set, and the measure of success will be the gigawatts that actually get built.
(Reporting based on The New Indian Express and The Indian Express.)