Renewable Energy in India: Potential, Installed Capacity, 500 GW Target, Key Schemes (PM-KUSUM, PM Surya Ghar), Challenges and Way Forward (UPSC Notes + PYQs)

Why renewables matter for India

India is the world’s third-largest energy consumer and imports most of its crude oil and a large share of its gas. Coal still generates about three-quarters of its electricity. Renewables help in four ways: energy security (sunlight cannot be blockaded), climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, clean air, and jobs and industry, especially in manufacturing solar modules and wind turbines. Electricity demand is also rising quickly with air conditioning, electric vehicles and data centres, so new supply must come from somewhere.

Potential

Note that in India large hydro (above 25 MW) is counted under “non-fossil” but MNRE classifies only small hydro as “renewable”; since 2019 large hydro has also been allowed to count towards renewable purchase obligations.

Where India stands

India’s non-fossil capacity (renewables, large hydro and nuclear) reached about half of total installed capacity in 2025, meeting the updated NDC target five years early. Solar capacity crossed 100 GW in early 2025, up from under 3 GW in 2014. India ranks among the top four countries in the world for installed renewable capacity. Large projects include the Bhadla solar park in Rajasthan (about 2.2 GW) and the Khavda renewable energy park in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch, planned at 30 GW, which will be among the largest in the world. Generation is a different matter: because solar and wind run only when the sun shines or wind blows, their share in electricity generated is much lower than their share in capacity.

Key policies and schemes

• National Solar Mission (2010, under the National Action Plan on Climate Change): began with a 20 GW target, raised to 100 GW by 2022.
• Solar parks scheme: ready land and transmission for developers.
• PM-KUSUM (2019): solar pumps and small solar plants for farmers; farmers can sell surplus power.
• PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (2024): rooftop solar for 1 crore households, with central subsidy and up to 300 units of free electricity a month.
• Green Energy Corridors: transmission lines to evacuate renewable power.
• Renewable Purchase Obligations (now Renewable Consumption Obligation under the Energy Conservation Act) on DISCOMs and large consumers.
• Waiver of inter-State transmission charges for projects commissioned by mid-2025, phased out afterwards.
• PLI for high-efficiency solar modules and the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) to build domestic manufacturing.
• Green Energy Open Access Rules (2022): consumers of 100 kW and above can buy green power directly.
• International Solar Alliance (launched by India and France at COP21, 2015; headquartered in Gurugram).

Challenges

• Intermittency and storage: solar output collapses in the evening when demand peaks; battery and pumped storage are still small.
• Grid and transmission: the best sites are far from cities; lines take longer to build than solar plants.
• DISCOM finances: loss-making distribution companies delay payments and resist long-term contracts.
• Import dependence: China dominates polysilicon, wafers and cells; India builds modules but imports most cells.
• Land: large parks need land, sometimes in grasslands and habitats such as those of the Great Indian Bustard, whose power-line deaths reached the Supreme Court.
• Unsigned power purchase agreements: some auctioned capacity has struggled to find buyers.
• Recycling: end-of-life solar panels will become a large waste stream.

Uttar Pradesh angle

UP has high solar potential in Bundelkhand and the western districts. The UP Solar Energy Policy, 2022 targets 22 GW of solar by 2026-27, including rooftop and utility-scale projects, and the Bundelkhand region hosts large solar parks. Ayodhya has been developed as a model solar city. UP is also a large producer of bagasse-based power from its sugar mills.

Way forward

Pair every new solar and wind project with storage, use time-of-day tariffs to shift demand, expand pumped hydro, build domestic supply chains from polysilicon up, reform DISCOMs, plan offshore wind, and set up a recycling system for panels and batteries under EPR rules.

PYQ trend

Prelims asks schemes and terms: net metering (2016), IREDA (2015), PM Surya Ghar (2025), UDAY (2016). Mains GS-I 2025 asked the ecological and economic benefits of solar energy. GS-III often asks on energy security and the transition.

Renewable Energy: UPSC angle

Renewable Energy UPSC PYQs (Prelims)

Questions UPSC has actually asked, from the official papers. Pick an option to check yourself.

Mains PYQs on this topic

Questions from the official UPSC Mains papers (2023-2026 in the Battle IAS Mains bank), newest first. Each links to a model answer.

1. UPSC Mains 2025 · GS Paper I · Q6 · 10 marks

   Explain briefly the ecological and economic benefits of solar energy generation in India with suitable examples.

   Model answer and approach

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Image: Copernicus Sentinel-2, ESA, Wikimedia Commons, Attribution