How energy flowed between hiccups and hope

Solar was a bright spot in a year marked by domestic challenges, like oil imports, and global concerns, such as climate change

- SUDHEER PAL SINGH

The year 2025 will go down as a period defined by hiccups and hope for India’s energy sector. This trend played out with surprising similarity for renewable energy, oil imports, and climate change, among other areas, with possible ramifications for India’s ongoing energy transition. It also raised larger questions about the direction and strength of the country’s energy security.

Solar spectacle

A case in point was solar energy, the most cited success story by policy makers and industry executives alike.

Never before in India has a power generation technology grown at such record-setting speed of capacity creation as solar. This has happened largely due to technology innovation and policy push. The numbers tell a story to be proud of. The annual solar capacity addition has grown at an exponential scale year after year. Sample this: From 5.6 gigawatt (Gw) in 2020-21, it shot up to 12.7 Gw in 2021-22, and then to 15 GW in 2023-24, finally rising to 23.8 Gw in 2024-25. In the first eight months (April-November) of the current financial year alone, 27.2 Gw capacity was added.

However, the picture isn’t all glowing. Granular data shows the overall renewable energy capacity awarded this year, led largely by solar, has plummeted to a mere 5.8 Gw, from around 40 Gw last financial year due to delays in signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) by discoms. Since renewable energy projects typically take 2-3 years to be executed, the impact of the slowdown in tendering activity on capacity addition will become visible in 2028.

Experts, however, say it is too early to write solar off.