India’s Green Energy Revolution

From electrifying public transport to solar rooftops, small urban solar parks like this one, and the world’s largest solar farm, to biogas and hydrogen, India is throwing everything it’s got at its energy problem—a problem of both demand and supply.

Energy Consumption in India

An Indian consumes less than a third of the energy an American does on average. But there are 1.4 billion Indians, making it the world’s third-largest energy consumer.

Rising incomes, industrialization, and urbanization also mean rapidly rising energy demand, supplied mostly by hydrocarbons.

Current Energy Sources

Coal powers 70% of India’s electricity, and the country has the second-largest reserve in the world. Petroleum products power transport, with over 80% of crude oil being imported, posing a budget risk.

India’s Green Energy Initiatives

This is why India is aggressively pushing public and private investments across green energy, using a mix of local production incentives and import tariff barriers. The progress has been encouraging. By 2030, almost half of India’s power generation capacity will be solar, wind, and hydro.

Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicle sales tripled last year, though they are still a fraction of overall sales.

Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen has drawn multi-billion dollar bets from leading conglomerates.

Challenges and Investment Needs

But there are still challenges with batteries, storage, and grid transformation. So much remains to be done. Last year, India spent $6 billion on green energy technologies.

It needs at least ten times that investment every year until 2030 to get on track with net zero.

The Global Importance of India’s Energy Transition

India needs to get this energy transition right. It would not be an exaggeration to say the future of the planet depends on it.