The International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST) on Wednesday hosted the Northeast India Clean Energy Conclave 2026 at NEDFi House in Guwahati, bringing together senior government officials, regulators, industry leaders, financial institutions and technology providers to chart a structured roadmap for scaling up renewable energy across the Northeastern states. The Conclave focused on unlocking the region’s estimated 130 GW renewable energy potential. Despite holding nearly 9 percent of India’s waterbodies and possessing significant hydro and solar resources, only around 2.3 GW of renewable capacity is currently planned for deployment, highlighting a vast untapped investment opportunity. With electricity demand in the Northeast projected to rise by over 40 percent by 2031–32, participants stressed the need for a diversified, storage-integrated and reliability-focused power system.
Presenting the region’s clean energy growth opportunity, Mandvi Singh, Programme Director at iFOREST, said the Northeast stands at a pivotal moment in India’s energy transition. She emphasized that converting identified opportunities into bankable projects would require policy clarity, assured offtake mechanisms, and integrated planning for storage and transmission.
The Conclave was inaugurated by Jadav Saikia, IAS, Secretary (Power), Government of Assam, who highlighted Assam’s recently notified solar, pumped storage and thermal power generation policies in 2025 aimed at smoothing the clean energy transition. He informed that three pumped storage projects with a combined capacity exceeding 3,000 MW are underway and that Assam has successfully implemented the PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana, targeting over 91,000 rooftop installations, making it first in the Northeast and tenth nationally. He added that more than 200 MW of new photovoltaic projects are in the pipeline and that transmission and distribution losses have been reduced to 14 percent in 2023–24.
Shri Kumar Sanjay Krishna, IAS (Retd), in his special address, noted that global climate finance commitments remain uncertain amid geopolitical tensions and economic pressures. He stressed the importance of generating domestic investment momentum in renewable energy. Baishali Talukdar, Deputy Manager of the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL), stated that prior to the announcement of the state’s rooftop solar incentive policy, Assam had only around 1,000 rooftop solar installations. However, within just two months of the policy being introduced, the response was overwhelming, with more than two lakh applications received. She noted that earlier, most stages of the application and approval process were conducted offline, which often led to delays. The system has now been fully digitized, with end-to-end online processing. Approvals are currently being granted within seven days, significantly streamlining the procedure and contributing to the scheme’s growing popularity across the state.
Talukdar further informed that approximately 92,000 rooftop solar installations have already been completed within a short span of time. The number of registered vendors has also increased substantially, rising to around 1,000. She expressed confidence that APDCL is set to surpass the one lakh installation milestone shortly. Following the Assam Government’s announcement of state incentives for up to one lakh rooftop installations, APDCL has requested the government to extend the incentive coverage to an additional one lakh beneficiaries. She emphasized that in order to achieve the target of 2.18 lakh rooftop solar installations by 2027, continued policy support and expansion of the incentive framework will be essential.
Electricity demand in the Northeast is projected to increase from 24,417 MU in 2025–26 to 34,572 MU in 2031–32, while peak demand is expected to rise from 4,996 MW to 7,192 MW. Experts at the Conclave observed that meeting this rising demand will require not just additional capacity but a modernized and flexible renewable energy architecture integrating rooftop and distributed solar, floating solar, pumped storage, battery energy storage systems, biomass, modernized hydro and smart grid solutions.
With industrial expansion initiatives such as Advantage Assam 2.0 underway, the region’s growing commercial and industrial demand is expected to open new opportunities for innovative renewable procurement models. The Conclave concluded with a call for coordinated action across policy, regulation, finance and infrastructure to position the Northeast as India’s emerging clean energy growth corridor.
