As one of the world’s most promising and fastest-growing economies, with a corresponding energy demand that needs to be balanced with Net Zero goals, India has both the opportunity and the responsibility to be in the vanguard of the global energy transition.
The country’s role in this regard was highlighted at a recent event, the third India Energy Transition Conference, organised by FICCI in New Delhi. Among the distinguished speakers was Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, who said that India was leading the global energy transition with “unprecedented speed, scale, and scope”.
The Conference was held on 29 January 2025, approximately a fortnight before the start of the India Energy Week 2025 (11-14 February 2025) in New Delhi. Besides addressing the meet, the Union minister also launched a report titled ‘Powering India’s Energy Transition’.
As per a PIB press release on the event, outlining the progress in energy transition, Joshi gave the following examples:
- India has already achieved almost 100 GW of solar capacity and is set to add 50 GW of new renewable capacity annually in the coming years.
- In the past 10 years, India’s installed renewable capacity has surged by almost 200 per cent, from 75.52 GW in 2014 to 220 GW at present.
- Tariff for grid-connected solar power plants has decreased by 80 per cent, from INR 10.95 per unit in 2010-11 to just INR 2.15 per unit, making India a leader in affordable renewable energy.
- India is on track to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, with an even more ambitious target of 1,800 GW by 2047.
- PM SuryaGhar Yojana, which aims to facilitate the installation of 1 crore (10 million) solar panels, has completed 8.5 lakh (8,500,000) installations.
India’s energy demand to double by 2032
Joshi told the FICCI meet audience that India’s energy demand was expected to double by 2032 and higher financing would be required in the renewable energy sector, so that India could meet about 50 per cent of this increased energy demand through renewable energy.
These figures are aligned with what Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, had said in November 2024 about India’s surging energy demand and its global impact.
According to The New Indian Express, speaking at the GEO India 2024 conference, Puri said that India would account for 25 per cent of the global increase in energy consumption in the next two decades. The minister added that India’s fuel demand was growing three times faster than the global average.
Catering to this demand meant more new energy deals, more energy exploration, and more clean energy development. “Balancing the trilemma of availability, affordability, and sustainability is not only a priority but [also] a commitment that we are meeting head-on with a focus on exploration, production, and energy security,” said Puri.
The Union minister said that India had 651.8 million metric tonnes of recoverable crude oil reserves and 1,138.6 billion cubic metres of recoverable natural gas reserves within its sedimentary basins.
Investment in energy exploration can bring in billions of dollars; the returns are lucrative as there is a guaranteed consumer base and demand is only set to grow.
A CNBC report in April 2024 said that GAIL (India) Ltd, the state-owned natural gas company, could see its market capital double by 2026, as natural gas was poised to take a bigger share of India’s energy mix.
This report cited a forecast by global research and broking firm Morgan Stanley, which put India’s potential investment in natural gas infrastructure at USD 65 billion.
The share of natural gas in India’s primary energy mix is expected to soon double — from 6 per cent in 2024 to 12 per cent by 2030.
Net Zero emission pathway to 2070
The population size and the economic growth in India combine to give this country a leading role in the global energy transformation. Even when India focuses on its domestic renewable energy and clean energy sector, that shift in consumption from the most polluting fossil fuels to cleaner fuel sources makes a noticeable global impact.
That brings attention to the Net Zero goalpost, which for India is 2070, though many countries have targeted 2050. Net Zero is the state in which the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) released into the atmosphere is the same as the amount of GHGs removed from the atmosphere.
Reaching Net Zero is essential in order to limit the rise of the global temperature to a certain point — ideally no higher than 1.5 degrees Centigrade (and definitely below 2 degrees Centigrade) above the global pre-industrial baseline. Failure to do so would result in catastrophic climate emergencies, some of which are already evident.
Developing new and renewable energy sources quickly is imperative for attaining Net Zero.
In September 2023, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy, said — as quoted in a PIB press release — that India was set to achieve its short-term and long-term targets under the “Panchamrit” action plan, such as reaching a non-fossil fuel energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030; fulfilling at least half of its energy requirements via renewable energy by 2030; reducing CO2 emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030; reducing carbon intensity below 45 per cent by 2030; and finally pave the way for achieving a Net Zero emission target by 2070.
Government programmes transforming clean energy access
Energy transformation can truly be a success only when the majority of the Indian population can benefit from it. The Government of India has several aims and achievements in this area.
A few days before the FICCI event in New Delhi, Union minister Pralhad Joshi addressed a gathering in the national capital on 25 January 2025, and he spoke of how PM SuryaGhar Yojana was designed to empower citizens to become energy producers and earn an extra income.
A PIB release quoted Joshi as saying, “The beneficiaries of PM SuryaGhar and PM Kusum are the real ambassadors of India’s renewable energy movement.”
PIB reported: “Beneficiaries of PM SuryaGhar and PM Kusum from different parts of the country spoke on the occasion and appreciated the timely subsidies being received by them, the ease with which they could register on the PM SuryaGhar portal without human interventions and the huge savings and zero bills from electricity because of the installation.”
This scheme — PM SuryaGhar Muft Bijli Yojana — was launched on 15 February 2024, in order to provide free electricity to Indian households through the subsidised (40 per cent) installation of rooftop solar panels.
The solar panels would give the equipped households up to 300 units of free electricity per month, resulting in savings up to INR 18,000 per year. The Government of India, too, would have estimated savings of INR 75,000 crore per year in electricity supply and distribution costs. The scheme has an outlay of Rs 75,021 crore and is to be implemented till FY 2026-27.
This innovative solar power scheme augments other energy transition schemes in India: the government has provided clean cooking solutions to 330 million households; and has brought 98 per cent of the Indian population within the ambit of city gas distribution (CGD) networks.
In August 2022, PIB reported that “295 Geographical Areas (GAs) covering about 98 per cent of the population and 88 per cent of total geographical area of the country, spread over around 630 districts in 28 states/UTs… have been covered under the CGD network”.
Collectively, these schemes drive the Indian economy and also power the global energy transformation.
