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Narendra Modi lures India’s fossil fuel companies to back solar boom

India’s biggest energy companies are moving beyond their roots in fossil fuels to invest in renewables, backing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal to build up alternatives to the most polluting forms of energy.Indian Oil Corp., a prominent refiner, along with Oil India Ltd, are working to build a 1-gigawatt solar farm in Madhya Pradesh, according to the state agency responsible for implementing energy policy. The oil companies join India’s largest conventional electricity generators like NTPC Ltd and Tata Power Co., which are aiming to be the biggest players in clean energy.

We already have some wind capacities, and now we want to position ourselves big in solar,” said Dinesh Kumar Sarraf, chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Investments in renewable energy are not for mere demonstration, but also because of business reasons. We are working towards giving renewables a reasonable share in our overall business mix.More renewables than coal power will be built in Asia over the next 25 years, and most of it will be built by these big conventional power companies,” said Justin Wu, head of Asia and Pacific for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Hong Kong.