INDIA'S GREEN LEAP: THE QUIET REVOLUTION LEADING AHEAD

Policy clarity, private participation and innovation are powering India's renewable energy momentum, setting the pace for global climate action

- By Rahul Munjal

IF THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING is in the eating, then India's energy transition journey recently turned sweeter.

India's achievement of its Paris Agreement target of 50 per cent of installed power capacity through non-fossil fuel sources is an epochal moment for global climate action. Our country, the world's fastest-growing major economy, is walking the climate talk, and this is just the shot in the arm that the global climate movement needed. We have laid down a climate action template for the world to emulate.

This milestone represents a well-orchestrated plan coming to fruition. India's policy and regulatory support has touched every segment of the renewable energy (RE) ecosystem, across the value chain, thereby ensuring the sector's rapid growth while also addressing its affordability. Let me begin from the perspective of Integrated Power Producers (IPP). Setting up of RE projects has been facilitated by mega and ultra-mega solar parks.

Robust and predictable tendering by Renewable Energy Implementing Agencies (REIAs) such as Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has attracted investments in the sector and been a key driver of market growth. Waiver of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for wind and solar projects, “Must Run status” to RE plants, and many such initiatives have all been instrumental in accelerating RE deployment. The scale and speed of growth established the requisite supply chains for cost-effective installations.