India Green Energy Awards Highlight Indigenous Innovation

The Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) held the sixth India Green Energy Awards (IGEA)  in New Delhi, recognising contributions to India's clean-energy sector, with a focus on indigenous technology, domestic manufacturing and bioenergy innovation.

The awards ceremony took place at the Auditorium of Atal Akshaya Urja Bhawan, alongside a seminar titled 'Bio Pathways to Net Zero: Biomass & Bioenergy'. The event brought together policymakers, industry representatives, technology providers and bioenergy stakeholders to discuss the role of biomass and bioenergy in India's energy transition.

Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy and Power, Government of India, felicitated the awardees and called for stronger collaboration between the government and industry to advance indigenous technologies, expand domestic manufacturing and scale up clean-energy solutions.

In his address, Naik congratulated the award recipients and emphasised the importance of recognising technologies and solutions that have progressed beyond the conceptual stage to practical implementation. Such initiatives, he noted, can encourage wider adoption of clean-energy innovations.

The ceremony was also addressed by Gaurav Mishra, Scientist F at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; Ashish Kumar, Vice President of IFGE and Managing Director of Verbio India; Ravi Gupta, Chairman of IFGE's Sugar Bioenergy Forum and Executive Director of Renuka Sugars; Jatin Arya, Director at CareEdge; Ashvini Kumar, Advisor to the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and former Managing Director of the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI); Vaibhav Dange, Founder Director of IFGE; and Sanjay Ganjoo, Director of IFGE.

Discussions during the event highlighted bioenergy's potential to strengthen India's energy security, improve farmers' incomes, create rural employment and reduce industrial emissions. Participants identified commercially viable projects, dependable feedstock supplies, efficient logistics and assured offtake arrangements as key requirements for expanding the sector.

The deliberations also covered government initiatives and emerging applications across the bioenergy value chain. These included the National Bioenergy Programme, compressed biogas (CBG) projects under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative and the GOBARdhan programme, as well as biomass utilisation under the SAMARTH Mission.

Emerging opportunities in biochar, bio-bitumen and organic fertilisers also featured in the discussions. Participants stressed the need for stable policies, improved project economics, efficient biomass aggregation and integrated value chains to support investment and accelerate the commercial deployment of bioenergy technologies.

The awards were evaluated by a jury comprising experts and industry representatives from renewable energy, research, policy and sustainable development. The jury included G. Sridhar, former Director General of SSS-NIBE; Sanjay Bandopadhyay, IAS (Retd.) and former Chairman of the Inland Waterways Authority of India; Anjan Ray, former Director of CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum; S.S.V. Ramakumar, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Greenko/AM Green; Prafulla Pathak, President of the Solar Energy Society of India; Subodh Kumar, Advisor to the National Team at IFGE and former Executive Director of Indian Oil; Sunil Bhatnagar, Additional Director at SwitchLabs; and Satish Upadhyay, Chairperson of IFGE-BBPF and former Mission Director of SAMARTH.

CareEdge served as the knowledge partner, while The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) was the institutional partner and the Solar Energy Society of India (SESI) was the supporting partner. 

The sixth edition of the awards highlighted the importance of combining policy support, indigenous technological capabilities and industry participation to strengthen India's green-energy ecosystem, particularly in biomass and bioenergy.