Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s annual renewable energy capacity addition has been exceeding that of coal-based thermal power since 2017. He claimed that in the last six years, the country has increased its installed renewable energy capacity by two-and-a-half times.

Speaking at the RE-Invest 2020 conference, the prime minister highlighted his government’s efforts towards renewable energy and invited global investors to join the sector.

“There are huge renewable energy deployment plans for the next decade,” he said, adding that these are likely to generate business prospects of around $20 billion (approximately Rs 1.52 lakh crore) per year.

Modi said that India’s renewable energy capacity will rise to 220 Giga Watts by 2022 from the current 136 Giga Watt, and that at present it forms about 36% of India’s total electricity generating capacity.

“Today, India’s renewable power capacity is the fourth largest in the world,” Modi claimed. “It is growing at the fastest speed among all major countries.”

The prime minister also said that his government has decided to give production linked incentives to high-efficiency solar modules, following the scheme’s success in electronics manufacturing.

He said that the government invested in renewable energy even when it was not affordable and now the “investment and scale” is bringing the costs down. “We are showing to the world that sound environmental policies can also be sound economics,” he said.