EU–India Clean-Energy Matchmaking Starts on 21 October, Bringing Solar, Storage and Grid Firms Together

The European Commission has opened a three-day business mission in the Delhi National Capital Region aimed at linking European clean-technology clusters and small firms with Indian manufacturers, developers and industry bodies. The EU–India Matchmaking Event, organised through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), runs from 21 to 23 October 2026 in New Delhi and Greater Noida. It is timed to coincide with the Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo, which takes place at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, from 22 to 24 October.

The event is organised jointly with the Federation of European Business in India (FEBI) and the Enterprise Europe Network. Its focus areas are clean technologies, renewable energy and storage, equipment manufacturing for renewables, smart grid and energy infrastructure, and green finance and investment support. The format is built to encourage three types of partnership: cluster-to-cluster, cluster-to-business and business-to-business.

A Structured Opening Day

The first day, hosted at the Crowne Plaza in Okhla, New Delhi, combines a knowledge-exchange seminar with formal matchmaking. According to the published agenda, the morning covers doing business in India and building Europe–India value chains, with presentations from FEBI’s policy team and Invest India’s Europe Desk. Briefings follow from FEBI’s Energy & Renewables committee, a CEN-CENELEC standardisation expert seconded to India, and the IP SME Helpdesk on protecting intellectual property.

Official remarks are scheduled from Dr Ewa Suwara, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan; a Deputy Secretary from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry; and the European Commission’s DG GROW unit responsible for clusters. A quick-fire pitching round then brings together European clusters, including Lithuania’s photovoltaic technology cluster FETEK, the Estonian Hydrogen Cluster and Germany’s Cluster Energy Technology Berlin-Brandenburg, with Indian bodies such as CII, FISME, the Renewable Energy Society of India, IWTMA and IEEMA. The afternoon is reserved for pre-booked bilateral meetings, with up to nine 20-minute slots per participant, arranged only between European and Indian organisations.

Who Is in the Delegation

The official participant booklet lists 18 cluster organisations and three SMEs from 15 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Norway is the only non-EU country, taking part through the EU’s Single Market Programme. The SMEs are Germany’s Kraftblock, registered under renewable energy and storage, and two Swedish companies, ECOLOO Group and Swedish Exergy.

Day Two at REI Expo

On 22 October, the delegation moves to Greater Noida for the REI Expo opening ceremony, followed by guided stand visits organised by theme. The solar and PV manufacturing group is scheduled to visit Waaree Energies, Premier Energies, Goldi Solar and Rayzon Solar, while the energy-transition and smart-grid group will meet exhibitors including Schneider Electric, Stäubli and Delta. Separate groups cover sustainable infrastructure and bioenergy.

An ECCP session titled “Europe Calling” on the expo stage will allow European clusters to pitch their technologies and explain how Indian associations can register on the platform for future cooperation. According to the ECCP, the 2025 edition of REI Expo drew more than 1,000 exhibitors and 55,000 visitors.

Site Visits on the Final Day

The programme closes on 23 October with two site-visit tracks. The first covers Jakson Solar’s Greater Noida module plant, listed at 1.2 GW of annual capacity producing monofacial and bifacial TOPCon modules, and NETRA, NTPC’s research and development centre. The second takes delegates to TERI’s Gurugram campus and the headquarters of the International Solar Alliance.

Why India, Why Now

The scale of India’s clean-energy build-out explains much of the interest. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) data show installed renewable capacity of 299.25 GW as of 30 September 2026, including 171.05 GW of solar and 59.20 GW of wind. India added 20.79 GW of solar in the first half of FY2026-27 alone. Large hydro capacity includes about 7.4 GW of pumped storage, and total non-fossil capacity, including nuclear, stands at 308.03 GW.

Trade policy is also part of the backdrop. The EU and India concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement on 27 January 2026 at the 16th India–EU Summit in New Delhi. The European Commission describes it as the largest such agreement either side has concluded, covering a market of about two billion people. India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry puts bilateral goods trade at USD 136.54 billion in 2024-25. The agreement still has to complete approval and ratification before it enters into force. Clean-energy cooperation between the two sides is already structured through the EU–India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership, established in 2016.

Building on Earlier Editions

This is the third edition of the initiative. The first was held alongside the Bengaluru Tech Summit in November 2024. The 2025 edition, also in New Delhi and Greater Noida, involved 13 EU clusters and one SME from eight countries and produced 115 bilateral meetings among 32 participants. This year’s delegation is larger, both in the number of organisations and in the number of countries represented.

What to Watch

The participant booklet lists the follow-up steps it expects from meetings: technical calls, joint applications to EU or Indian funding calls, pilot projects, market-entry support, and distributor or investment discussions. How far this week’s meetings turn into technology partnerships or supply arrangements should become clearer when the ECCP publishes its post-event report, as it did for the 2025 edition. For Indian firms in solar manufacturing, storage and grid equipment, the event offers structured access to European cluster networks while the bilateral trade framework is being finalised.