India is finally becoming a clean energy superpower
For several years, the country has fallen well short of the rosy visions proclaimed by its leaders. India should become the first major economy to industrialize without carbonizing, to paraphrase its Group of 20 sherpa Amitabh Kant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to connect 500 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, equivalent to all the generators in France, Germany and Italy put together.
The picture on the ground has, until recently, been very different. A previous aspiration to hit 175 GW by 2022 came in 40% below target, and had to be fudged to avoid embarrassment. Ill-advised tariffs on solar panels, combined with contractual and political support for fossil fuels and constant changes to the rules of renewable power auctions, made matters worse.
Amid this policy chaos, wind and solar installations fell 19% last year, to 13 GW. That’s less than a third the level that would be needed for the country to be on track for Modi’s 2030 plan. Coal, the dirtiest fuel and the most readily available alternative to renewables in India, took up the slack: Usage by power plants jumped by 8.8% in the latest fiscal year through March. Plenty of analysts (including me) despaired about the prospects for a reversal.
The logjam, however, appears to be breaking. Solar panels and wind turbines have been springing up in 2024 like seedlings after the breaking of a drought. In the eight months through August, 18.8 GW of new renewable generators were connected, more than in the whole of 2023. Over the full year, that figure will
