An energy revolution in the making

Why in the News

India’s installed solar capacity has grown from 2.8 gigawatts (GW) in 2014 to 171 GW, according to the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, as India hosts the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit and Expo 2026. He sets out a second phase built on capital, manufacturing, storage and people to reach 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030.

What has the solar push delivered so far?

1. Solar ecosystem: Installed capacity is the most power all plants can produce at one moment. The Minister credits an ecosystem built around the 500 GW goal.
2. Cheaper power: Solar power that cost around ₹8 a unit in 2014-15 now sells for as low as ₹2.15.
3. Rooftop homes: More than 21 lakh of the 65 lakh homes with panels under PM Surya Ghar, the household rooftop solar scheme, now get a zero electricity bill.
4. Farm pumps: Over 30 lakh standalone solar pumps run under PM-KUSUM, the farm solar scheme, so the “annadata” (food giver) has also become an “urjadata” (energy giver).
5. The takeaway: Solar has proved it works for households and farmers, so the harder task now is financing, making and storing it at home.

What does the next phase need?

1. Second chapter: The next phase adds agri-photovoltaics (crops and panels on the same land) under PM-KUSUM 2.0 and pairs storage with solar. It also builds State-level green corridors, expands rooftop solar and digitises networks.
2. Capital: The 500 GW commitment needs about $220 billion, including $70 billion as foreign direct investment (FDI).
   • The private sector will lead with States, through parks such as Khavda, the world’s largest hybrid renewable energy park.
3. Manufacturing: The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which rewards firms for added domestic output, lifted module (panel) capacity above 225 GW. Cell capacity is only around 45 GW.
   • Investment must now go into cells, wafers and polysilicon, the earlier stages of a panel.
   • The National Green Hydrogen Mission is building an electrolyser industry, making machines that split water into hydrogen, for 5 million tonnes a year by 2030.
4. Storage: The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) sees a need for 236 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of batteries by 2031-32.
   • The Cabinet-approved third phase of the Green Energy Corridor supports 50 GWh with ₹50,000 crore.
5. People: Rooftop solar creates more jobs than ground-mounted plants, because local teams survey, install and service each system.

How does India use solar diplomacy?

1. Group of Twenty (G20): Under India’s 2023 Presidency, the African Union joined the G20 permanently, and leaders backed tripling renewables capacity by 2030.
2. BRICS Chair: In September, the BRICS New Delhi Declaration backed a BRICS Solar PV (photovoltaic) Cooperation Roadmap and principles for smart grids and storage.
3. International Solar Alliance (ISA): India and France launched it in Paris in 2015, and it now has 130 signatory and member countries.
4. ISA delivery: It builds skills through a Global Capability Centre and an ISA Academy, with capital from the $200 million Africa Solar Facility managed with Africa50.
5. Summit: The Bharat Mandapam summit hosts the Ninth ISA Assembly and the Fourth International Conference on Green Hydrogen together, for the first time.

Challenges

1. Grid before generation: A solar park takes about a year but a high voltage line takes several, so grid operators curtail solar output while lines are built.
2. Evening peak: Solar output ends at dusk and demand peaks in the evening, so coal and costly gas fill the gap without storage at scale.
3. Discom finances: Loss-making distribution companies (discoms) avoid signing new power purchase agreements (PPAs), the contracts to buy power, leaving 40 to 45 GW of awarded capacity unsigned.
4. Upstream imports: Cells, wafers, polysilicon and battery minerals remain concentrated in China.

Way Forward

1. Lines before plants: Tie capacity awards at a substation to the commissioning date of its evacuation line.
2. Storage in tenders: Require contracted storage in new solar tenders and scale viability gap funding, a government grant that makes projects bankable, for batteries.
3. Fix the buyer side: Make discoms sign PPAs within a fixed time after auctions, backed by payment security.

Conclusion

India’s solar record is still told mostly in capacity added. The test now is whether transmission lines, storage and timely payments to developers keep pace with new panels.

Key numbers

1. Non-fossil milestone: India is the only G20 country to have met its 2030 target of 50% non-fossil capacity, five years early.
2. Global solar pace: the first 1,000 GW of world solar took 25 years; the next 1,000 GW came in two.
3. Domestic capital: $150 billion of the investment need.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2015, GS3, 12 marks] To what factors can be the recent dramatic fall in equipment cost and tariff of solar energy be attributed? What implications does the trend have for thermal power producers and related industry?”