New Delhi: Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday asked renewable energy investors to tap the gap between the state’s current use of clean power and its 2040 target. Clean power made up 10 percent of Odisha’s total electricity consumption in 2025, Majhi said at a state session of the Bharat Renewable Energy (BRE) Summit and Expo 2026 in New Delhi. By 2040, he said, it should account for at least 33 percent of the state’s total industrial consumption.
Follow Energy Watch on X
“This gap is an opportunity for you,” Majhi told investors. That demand is growing with industry, he said. “The further we advance in our industrial revolution, the more our energy needs grow. We need energy, and clean energy at that.” Odisha has received industrial investment proposals worth Rs 22.5 lakh crore in the last two years, according to Majhi. In the same period, work has begun on more than 200 industries worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore, creating more than 1.8 lakh jobs, he said.
The state signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 1,17,500 crore on Tuesday morning, said Vishal Kumar Dev, Additional Chief Secretary in Odisha’s Department of Energy. The agreements span pumped storage, green hydrogen, solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects. “And that indicates the confidence that the industry has in Odisha,” Dev said.
To investors who sign up, Majhi offered a pledge on policy stability. “If you start a project, we will never put you in difficulty by changing any policy or rule midway through the project,” he said. “In other words, there will be continuity.” All proposals would be cleared transparently, immediately and on schedule, he said. “We will have the grid ready for you before you start generation.”
“Odisha has the resources, the demand, the infrastructure and the political will,” Majhi said. “Now we seek our partners, the partners who can share our ambition.”
Dev set out where the state stands against its own targets. The Odisha Renewable Energy Policy 2022 targets 11 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy additions by 2030. That includes 7,500 megawatt (MW) of solar, 2,000 MW of wind, 1,200 MW of pumped storage and 260 MW of small hydro.
The state has framed rules around the policy, Dev said. These include a pumped storage policy and operational guidelines, floating solar operational guidelines, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for wind projects and for transmission and distribution connectivity. Policies for agrivoltaics (agri-PV), compressed biogas and renewable land leasing are expected this month, he said.
Odisha’s single window committee has approved 94 projects of about 16 GW, according to Dev. Together, they represent nearly Rs 1 lakh crore of investment. The state also received investment intent of about Rs 67,000 crore at the Odisha Renewable Energy Investor Conclave in February. “What I want to emphasize here is the fact that these are not numbers on paper,” Dev said. “They are projects that are moving through approvals, land, and connectivity today.”
Storage is the first of four pillars of the state’s strategy, Dev said. “We all know that renewable power is only as valuable as its availability when it is needed.”
Odisha has about 49 GW of pumped storage potential across 59 sites, he said. Around 20 GW across 16 of those sites is already under development. The state has also awarded a 500 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery storage project supported by viability gap funding (VGF). Together, Dev said, these would turn variable generation into round-the-clock supply.
Majhi put the state’s 2040 goal at about 26,000 MW of pumped storage capacity.
Water is the second pillar. “Land is the scarcest input for large solar,” Dev said. Odisha’s reservoirs offer more than 12 GW of floating solar potential, according to him.
Projects totalling 1,000 MW have been awarded at the Rengali reservoir through a premium-based competitive bidding route, Dev said. Central financial assistance of Rs 1 crore a MW under the Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana would further improve the economics of floating solar in the state, he said. That would draw more developers. Majhi said the state wants about 7,000 MW of floating solar by 2036.
The third pillar is “grid before generation”, in Dev’s words. In September, the Odisha Cabinet approved an investment of Rs 16,000 crore under the Mukhya Mantri Shakti Vikas Yojana. The money will go into strengthening and modernising the state’s transmission infrastructure over the next three years, he said. The CM also assured investors of transmission networks being in place before their projects are ready, directly addressing a critical bottleneck holding up green energy projects in India.
The fourth pillar is demand. The Grid Corporation of Odisha (GRIDCO), the state’s renewable energy nodal agency, acts as the anchor off-taker and single window facilitator, Dev said. “Developers have a credible buyer and one point of contact, which reduces risks and shortens the path from approval to commissioning.”
Dev described Odisha as a revenue surplus state, with a surplus of about 3.2 percent of its gross domestic product. It is also power surplus, he said, and holds 11 percent of India’s surface water for 3 percent of its population. “Revenue surplus also means that we have the ability to honor our commitments,” Dev said. That includes the state’s commitments on incentives to industry, he said.
Majhi also pitched the state’s coast for green hydrogen and green ammonia trade. Odisha has three ports, at Paradip, Dhamra and Gopalpur, he said. The Centre is building another large port at Bahuda in Ganjam district. The Gopalpur and Paradip port regions offer ready infrastructure for green hydrogen and green ammonia projects, according to Majhi, and the state could become an export hub for both.
Follow Energy Watch on LinkedIN
“Let us build India’s green energy future together and let a large part of it be built in Odisha,” Majhi said.