On a hot July afternoon this year, electricity generated from renewable energy briefly met over half of India's peak power demand - only the second time this happened. The first instance was around the same period a year ago. While it was only briefly that power generated from solar, wind, hydro and nuclear sources collectively outstripped coal-based output, it was a milestone moment reflecting the astonishing growth of non-fossil fuels to the country's electricity mix over the last decade.
"It showed that renewable energy is no longer a marginal source sitting at the edge of the power system," Sumant Sinha, CEO of ReNew Power, one of India's largest Nasdaq-listed clean energy companies, told the BBC. To be sure, coal-based power plants still continue to generate 70% of India's electricity on average because they run on a higher load factor, or for more hours than solar or wind. Yet, the country's push for clean energy appears to have reached a crucial inflection point.
A decade ago India's installed renewable energy capacity was barely 4GW. It now makes up 300GW or 54% of its total 552GW installed capacity, external - a target that's been achieved five years ahead of schedule. For a nation long seen as the poster child for dirty coal dependence, this rapid transition points to a remarkable achievement in decarbonising its grid.
Yet, the gains are tempered by some serious challenges. Foremost among them is a shortage of grid capacity. The renewables' build out has significantly outpaced transmission infrastructure, a point of major concern for policymakers.
"In the first quarter of 2026, transmission constraints accounted for nearly two-thirds of all renewable energy curtailment at 300 gigawatt-hours (GWh)," according to Ember, a global energy think-tank. Put simply, that means a bulk of the clean energy that was produced in India was wasted because the country's transmission lines have been dogged by missed targets, with one out of four inter-state projects facing delays of over a year. The difficulty lies in matching the speed of generation projects with the grid build-out, says Sinha.
"Generation projects can be constructed in 18-24 months… Transmission can take much longer because they involve right-of-way, land acquisition, approvals and coordination across many agencies. It is an execution issue that becomes more important as the system gets larger," he adds. Vibhuti Garg of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis also blames "poor planning" for the problem.
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