India’s 283 GW Clean-Energy Base Must Shift to Adoption, Experts Urge
Experts say India must move beyond capacity creation to grid integration, storage, financing and procurement to fully utilise its 283.46 GW non-fossil-fuel power base and ensure reliable, affordable clean-energy adoption.
August 06, 2026. By EI News Network
Organised by the Think Change Forum in partnership with Delhi Research Implementation and Innovation (DRIIV), the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser’s knowledge partner, the seminar, “New Energy: From Evaluation to Adoption”, brought together policymakers, industry leaders, financiers, public-sector enterprises and clean-energy stakeholders at the India International Centre.
Experts noted that as of 31 March 2026, India had installed 283.46 GW of non-fossil-fuel capacity, including 274.68 GW of renewable energy, ranking third globally in installed renewable-energy capacity. The country also added a record 55.29 GW of non-fossil capacity during FY2025–26.
However, speakers stressed that installed capacity alone cannot deliver the energy transition. The next and more difficult phase, they said, will be to absorb variable renewable power into the grid, move it efficiently from generation centres to consumers, create dependable procurement mechanisms and enable industry, infrastructure, mobility, buildings, households and public institutions to adopt cleaner energy at scale.
The scale of the integration challenge is already visible. During April–June 2026, approximately 8,133 GWh of solar electricity was curtailed because of transmission constraints and grid-security requirements, experts said. At the same time, the Central Electricity Authority estimates that India will require approximately 336 GWh of energy-storage capacity by 2029–30 and 411 GWh by 2031–32 to integrate renewable power reliably and maintain grid stability.
Delivering the opening keynote, Dr Ajay Mathur, former director general of the International Solar Alliance and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said: “The real question is how we adopt clean energy technologies at scale, reliably and affordably.”
He outlined five strategic focus areas: energy efficiency as the lowest-cost lever; shifting electricity sources as solar and wind with storage are now cheaper than new coal; enhancing electrification of cooking and mobility; providing realistic decarbonisation pathways for legacy, energy-intensive sectors like cement, steel and fertilisers where green hydrogen can play a critical role; and continuously evaluating and scaling emerging technologies.
“India’s new energy future will be shaped not only by the technologies we develop, but by how effectively these are adopted, financed, and scaled. This is where ambition needs execution,” Dr Mathur said.
In his keynote address, Shri Upendra Tripathy, retired IAS officer and former secretary, MNRE, now advisor (climate change) to Karnataka’s chief minister, underlined the importance of practical and commercially viable transition pathways for legacy and energy-intensive sectors.
“This conversation is coming at the right time, given the range of challenges we’ve seen globally in recent times. These challenges are not uni-directional, they play out at every level, global, national, and state, and each requires its own solution,” he said.
A.K. Saxena, senior director at TERI, said new energy solutions will continue to emerge, driven by both technology push and demand pull, but must be examined through common lenses of policy, regulations, standards, workforce and capacity building, financing and business models.
Dr Vishal Choudhary, scientist at the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, underlined the need to connect innovation, research, policy and implementation, and said: “A major concern is breaking down silos. Only when research, academia, industry, startups and government come on a single platform can we close the gap between technology validation and industry adoption.”
Experts identified four priority areas for action: align policy, finance, technology and demand; build bankable adoption models; accelerate transmission and storage; and strengthen domestic value chains.
There was broad consensus that India’s clean-energy opportunity can only be realised through faster and more structured coordination among policymakers, financiers, technology providers, power utilities, industrial users and institutional buyers.
“India’s 283.46 GW non-fossil-fuel base represents a historic achievement, but its full economic, environmental and strategic value will only be realised when clean power can be reliably delivered to, purchased by and adopted across the economy,” experts concluded.
please contact: contact@energetica-india.net.
Ashish Kauleshnam
Associate Director & Vertical Head - Automotive Design, Engineering & Manufacturing
Ashish Kauleshnam, Tata Elxsi on How AI, Digital Engineering, Advancing Sustainable Mobility
Avinash Hiranandani
Vice Chairman and MD
Continuous Innovation is Fundamental to RenewSys’ Growth Strategy: Avinash Hiranandani
Sanjeev Aggarwal
Founder and Executive Chairman
Tie ALMM Implementation to Domestic Capacity, Not Calendar Deadlines: Sanjeev Aggarwal
Archana Bhatnagar
Director, Market and Project Development, South Asia
Renewables Will Become the Backbone of India’s Grid, Says Wärtsilä’s Archana Bhatnagar
Gadhadar Reddy
Co-Founder & CEO
NoPo' Gadhadar Reddy Explains India's Deep-Tech Opportunity in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes