India has seen a rapid increase in electricity supplied from low-carbon sources, a major shift in the country’s efforts to decarbonise its power sector. However, the environmental and economic benefits of that expansion are being undermined by inadequate transmission infrastructure, leading to frequent curtailment of renewable output.
Grid bottlenecks often prevent wind and solar plants from sending their full output to demand centres, forcing operators to reduce generation even when wind and sun are abundant. That mismatch between where green power is produced and where it is needed means favourable climate gains are diluted: clean megawatts are available but cannot reach consumers and displace fossil-fuel generation.
The waste of renewable energy has multiple consequences. It reduces the effective return on investment for developers and can slow financing for further projects. It also limits the pace at which the power system can cut emissions, because curtailed renewable generation is not counted toward meeting demand and displacing coal or gas-fired production.
Addressing the problem will require faster expansion and modernisation of transmission networks, better planning across regions, and investments in solutions such as grid-scale storage and demand-management technologies to shift consumption to when renewable supply is plentiful. Coordinated policy and infrastructure upgrades will be pivotal to converting generation gains into lasting reductions in carbon emissions and into reliable, affordable power for consumers.
While the surge in renewable capacity marks a major transition in India’s energy mix, industry and policymakers face the immediate challenge of ensuring the grid can carry and integrate that clean energy so the country can realise the full benefits of its decarbonisation efforts.