The Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a Delhi-based think tank, on Tuesday listed opportunities that businesses in Bengal with support from the state government can explore in the fields of energy transition and circular economy.

“We look at sustainability as a business opportunity, not something as a feel-good measure,” said Hemant Mallya, lead of industrial sustainability, CEEW, at a CII-organised Annual Day event focusing on sustainable growth in Bengal.

Mallya said that energy transition, circular economy and bio-economy are the three broad areas where there is business potential in Bengal and other states as well.

“Bengal has about 130 gigawatts of raw solar potential as per our assessment. But, there is also a lot of agriculture in the state. This means that agrivoltaics (the dual use of land for solar energy generation and agriculture) is an opportunity that is not being tapped. This is an opportunity in the state, be it in the tea gardens or the rice firms,” Mallya said.

However, for a successful implementation, he said all the departments concerned such as agriculture, power, renewable energy, commerce and industry need to work together to ease the processes.

Opportunities in the energy transition exist in the manufacturing industry in solar and wind. There are also distributed energy solutions such as small hydro, pump hydro, rooftop solar and floating solar that can create jobs.

Bengal industries minister Shashi Panja, who was present at the event, said the state has policies in place such as West Bengal New and Renewable Energy Manufacturing Promotion Policy and West Bengal Net Metering Policy as part of the state’s sustainability initiatives.