“India is hugely important in the energy transition. That’s why we are here.” Bard Vegar Solhjell, who runs the Norwegian industry body Renewables Norway (Fornybar Norge), said it plainly in an interview with ANI during a visit to India.
Solhjell has held two cabinet posts at home, education and environment. He argued that India should no longer be treated as just a developing market. In his telling it is a strategic partner and a major manufacturer of clean technology, and Norwegian companies see commercial and strategic weight in that.
Three areas where the two sides fit
Asked where cooperation could go furthest, he named hydropower, offshore wind, and carbon capture and storage.
Hydro came first. “We have a hundred years of history of hydro. It’s 90 per cent of our electricity,” Solhjell said, adding that Norway is among Europe’s biggest producers. India is adding wind and solar quickly, and those sources rise and fall with the weather. He noted that Indian planners are already doing “quite a lot on pump storage” because of it. “I think it’s an area where we can have common ground,” he said.
Offshore wind is slower. Solhjell called it early-stage in both countries. Solar and onshore wind cost less today, he said, but “in the future offshore wind could be a very important alternative if we can get the technology right and get costs down.”
On carbon capture, he pointed to the two large facilities Norway now runs, one handling waste and one at a cement plant. The trip, he said, showed him how much India could use the same approach. “So that’s a third option.”
The Modi visit and a shift in mood
Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Norway on May 18-19, and Solhjell credited the trip with stirring interest across the Nordic region. “It’s a big news story, not only in Norway but throughout the Nordics,” he said. Some Norwegian firms that once had only “vague interest” in India have since started studying how to enter the market.
India and Norway used that visit to upgrade their ties to a Green Strategic Partnership, covering joint research on energy security, decarbonisation and the blue economy, according to an Observer Research Foundation analysis. No energy deals were signed during the trip. Earlier commercial links do exist: Equinor agreed in February 2024 to a 15-year LNG supply contract with Deepak Fertilisers, and Crown LNG has committed US$1 billion to a regasification terminal at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.
Solhjell also made a point about how the two sides should deal with each other. He rejected the idea that Europe simply passes technology down to developing economies. “I don’t think India is any less developed now in terms of technology than many European countries, rather the opposite, to be honest,” he said. He wants partnerships “where capital and competence go both ways.”
He tied the urgency to events abroad. The war in Ukraine and instability in West Asia have made energy independence a security matter, he said. “Right now, I think the drive and the urgency are the stronger forces,” he said, and that will “lead to a faster transition because we need it.”
His case for India’s weight in climate terms rests on growth. “India has the strongest economic growth of all big countries in the world,” he said. If it meets its “very ambitious goals” and energy becomes more dominated by renewables, “it could be the most important thing for the global climate.”
Sources
- India–Norway Green Partnership: Diversifying Energy, Deepening Decarbonization – Analysis
- "India is hugely important in energy transition": Renewables Norway CEO Bard Vegar Solhjell calls for strategic green partnerships
