‘India can be global producer of clean energy infra’: Clean tech CEO hails India-EU FTA

With the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, India has the opportunity to become a global production base for critical clean energy infrastructure rather than simply being an importer of clean tech, according to Alexander Enulescu, Founder and CEO of Sweden’s KonveGas.

Enulescu connected with Firstpost's Madhur Sharma just ahead of the launch of India-EU Startup Partnership on deep-tech and clean tech start-ups.

Enulescu said that India and Europe are natural partners in clean tech’s domain.

While Europe brings decades of expertise in specialised clean technologies, India offers scale, engineering talent, and an increasingly competitive manufacturing ecosystem, according to Enulescu.

“Together, these strengths can accelerate the commercialisation of clean energy solutions across multiple sectors,” Enulescu further said.

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The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

How are India and Sweden aligned when it comes to the transition to clean energy? And how does KonveGas fit into the picture?

India and Sweden approach the clean energy transition from different starting points, but with a common objective — building a low-carbon economy through innovation, sustainable manufacturing, and industrial resilience.

India is rapidly expanding renewable energy, green hydrogen, and compressed biogas to meet its energy security and climate goals, while Sweden has built deep expertise in advanced engineering, composite materials, and sustainable industrial technologies. Together, these strengths create significant opportunities to develop solutions that are both technologically advanced and commercially scalable.

KonveGas is an example of how this convergence can translate into practical innovation. We combine Swedish composite engineering with manufacturing in India to produce advanced Type 4 glass fibre composite cylinders for the safe storage and transportation of CNG, biogas, and hydrogen. The glass fibre brand used in our cylinders is owned by an Indian company, reinforcing local supply chains while ensuring that the finished products meet global performance and safety standards. This model demonstrates how global technology and Indian manufacturing can come together to create high-value clean energy infrastructure.

Ultimately, the energy transition is not just about generating cleaner fuels. It is about building the ecosystem that allows those fuels to move safely and efficiently from production to end use. Storage and transportation infrastructure will be just as critical as production capacity in determining how quickly clean fuels can be adopted at scale.

What opportunities do you see between India and the EU and India and Sweden regarding the clean energy transition?

The next phase of India-Europe collaboration will be driven by technology, manufacturing, and resilient supply chains. Europe brings decades of expertise in specialised clean technologies, while India offers scale, engineering talent, and an increasingly competitive manufacturing ecosystem. Together, these strengths can accelerate the commercialisation of clean energy solutions across multiple sectors.

For companies like KonveGas, the opportunity lies in localising advanced technologies in India while building products that can serve both domestic and global markets. As clean fuels such as compressed biogas and hydrogen become more mainstream, the need for advanced storage and transportation infrastructure will grow rapidly. This creates opportunities for joint innovation, manufacturing, and exports, allowing India to emerge not only as a major consumer of clean technologies but also as a global supplier of critical clean energy infrastructure.

From a clean-tech founder's perspective, how fundamentally will the India-EU Free Trade Agreement alter the dynamics of technology transfer? What specific regulatory or tariff barriers must drop to allow specialised European clean-tech firms to scale seamlessly in India? What opportunities are you looking forward to once the India-EU FTA goes into effect?

The India-EU Free Trade Agreement has the potential to reshape clean technology collaboration by moving the conversation beyond trade to industrial capability. The clean energy transition requires rapid deployment of specialised technologies, and that becomes much easier when barriers to technology transfer, investment, and manufacturing are reduced.

For advanced sectors such as composite materials, hydrogen infrastructure, and clean mobility, predictability is just as important as lower tariffs. Harmonised technical standards, faster certification processes, and easier movement of technology and engineering expertise can significantly reduce the time taken to bring innovations to market.

For companies like KonveGas, the opportunity lies in manufacturing advanced clean energy solutions in India using globally proven technology while serving both domestic and international markets. Rather than simply importing products, India has the opportunity to become a global production base for critical clean energy infrastructure. The FTA can accelerate that shift by creating an ecosystem where innovation, manufacturing, and exports reinforce one another.

Sweden and India have a longstanding relationship in industrial sustainability. How does the specific India-Sweden collaboration on green transitions serve as an anchor or operational blueprint for the broader, multi-nation India-EU clean-tech architecture?

India and Sweden have demonstrated that meaningful clean-tech collaboration is built on complementary strengths. Sweden contributes decades of expertise in advanced engineering, sustainable manufacturing, and innovation, while India contributes manufacturing scale, engineering talent, and one of the world's fastest-growing clean energy markets.

This approach offers a blueprint for broader India-EU engagement because it focuses on co-developing solutions rather than simply transferring technology. As the clean energy transition gathers pace, resilient supply chains, local manufacturing, and collaborative innovation will become just as important as breakthrough technologies themselves.

For KonveGas, this philosophy is reflected in combining Swedish engineering with manufacturing in India to produce globally competitive storage solutions. It is an example of how international expertise can strengthen India's industrial capabilities while creating products for global markets.

Critics often argue that clean energy transitions are neither economic nor financially viable. As someone who runs a clean-tech business, can profitability and sustainability coexist?

I believe they not only coexist but increasingly depend on one another.

Historically, sustainability was viewed as a cost. Today, businesses adopt clean technologies because they improve operational efficiency, reduce lifecycle costs, and strengthen long-term competitiveness.

For example, lighter composite storage systems reduce transportation costs, improve payload efficiency, lower maintenance requirements, and increase asset life. Those are commercial advantages independent of environmental benefits.

Ultimately, businesses will scale sustainable technologies only if they create value for customers. The future belongs to solutions where economic performance and environmental performance reinforce each other rather than compete.

Public and political discourse around the National Green Hydrogen Mission and Compressed Bio-Gas targets focuses almost entirely on production milestones. Yet you've argued that production is only half the battle and India faces a critical storage bottleneck. Why?

India has rightly focused on increasing production because without sufficient volumes, clean fuels cannot become commercially viable. But production alone does not build an energy ecosystem.

Every unit of hydrogen or compressed biogas produced must be stored safely, transported efficiently, and delivered reliably to industries, commercial users, or vehicles. Without robust storage and transportation infrastructure, production capacity cannot translate into widespread adoption.

This is why storage is the bridge between making clean energy and actually using it. And it is not only a question of whether the fuel can be moved. It is whether it can be moved cleanly. If clean hydrogen or biogas is stored and transported in vessels with a high carbon footprint, the storage itself starts to cancel out the benefit of the fuel. So storage does not just decide whether these fuels reach industry and transport. It decides whether they arrive as genuinely clean energy, or carrying emissions they were meant to replace.

What should India do to resolve these bottlenecks?

India needs to treat storage infrastructure as an integral part of its clean energy strategy rather than as downstream infrastructure.

That means encouraging domestic manufacturing of advanced storage systems, supporting research into new materials, creating globally aligned technical standards, and incentivising deployment across transport, logistics, and industrial sectors.

A balanced clean energy ecosystem requires equal attention to production, storage, transportation, and end-use infrastructure.

Traditional steel cylinders are heavy, capital-intensive, and prone to corrosion, while carbon fibre alternatives are often prohibitively expensive. How does KonveGas' Type 4 glass fibre composite technology solve this challenge?

Engineering is often about balancing competing priorities, and gas storage is a good example. The challenge is to create storage systems that are lightweight, durable, safe, and commercially viable at scale.

Konvegas Type 4 advanced glass fibre composite cylinders address this balance effectively. Compared with conventional steel cylinders, they are significantly lighter, improving payload efficiency and reducing transportation costs. Their composite construction also eliminates corrosion concerns, resulting in longer service life and lower maintenance requirements.

At the same time, KonveGas advanced glass fibre storage is built to deliver a strong balance of performance, durability, weight efficiency and affordability, supported by raw materials that are readily available, locally sourced and not based on fossil inputs, which keeps the embedded carbon footprint low. That combination makes advanced composite storage realistic for large-scale commercial deployment, while meeting the high safety standards that compressed gases such as CNG, biogas and hydrogen demand.

Ultimately, storage technology exists to enable wider clean fuel adoption, and that calls for solutions that are technically robust and economically practical in equal measure.

Heavy-duty trucking and heavy industry are difficult sectors to decarbonise. You've said Swedish composite engineering can reduce the carbon footprint of India's logistics sector by up to 70 per cent. Can you explain that figure?

The majority of emissions reduction comes from the transition to cleaner fuels such as compressed biogas and hydrogen. Replacing conventional fossil fuels with low-carbon alternatives naturally delivers the greatest environmental benefit.

However, storage technology also plays an important supporting role.

Composite cylinders are considerably lighter than conventional steel cylinders, allowing vehicles to carry more usable gas without proportionately increasing vehicle weight. Lower dead weight improves fuel efficiency, increases payload capacity, and reduces the number of trips needed to transport the same volume of gas.

These efficiencies may appear incremental in isolation, but across an entire logistics network they create meaningful reductions in fuel consumption, operating costs, and emissions.

The precise level of carbon reduction depends on the application, fuel type, and operating conditions, but the broader principle is clear: the clean energy transition is most effective when advances in fuel production are matched by equally efficient storage and transportation technologies.