Introduction

I have followed India’s energy transition with particular interest, not merely as an observer, but also because of my own professional engagement with India’s pioneering work in decentralised renewable energy. During my tenure as Global Strategist with Greenpeace International, I was closely associated with the groundbreaking decentralised renewable-energy project in the village of Dharnai, Bihar, led by Greenpeace India. The project was particularly significant because it demonstrated, at the community level, how decentralised renewable energy could provide reliable electricity access to rural populations while reducing dependence on conventional fossil-fuel-based systems. It was subsequently showcased at the United Nations as a landmark initiative in the field of renewable energy.

That experience gave me a first-hand appreciation of the potential of decentralised energy solutions in the developing world. It is also one of the reasons why I have followed India’s subsequent energy transformation so closely – from pioneering village-level renewable-energy solutions such as Dharnai to becoming one of the world’s largest markets for solar and renewable energy, and ultimately taking a leadership role in shaping the global solar agenda through the International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched at COP21 in Paris.

From energy scarcity to global renewable-energy power

As India enters the 80th year of its independence, one of the country’s most remarkable transformations has taken place in a sector that is fundamental to development: energy. The story is not simply about installing solar panels or building wind farms. It is the story of a country that, at independence in 1947, inherited a severely limited electricity system and progressively built one of the world’s largest and most complex energy systems – while now attempting to transform the very foundations on which that system rests.

In the early decades after independence, India’s overriding energy challenge was access. Electricity was scarce, the grid was limited and huge sections of the population had little or no access to reliable electricity. The priority was therefore understandably to build generation capacity, expand transmission and electrify the country. Large hydroelectric projects became symbols of India’s industrialisation, while coal progressively became the backbone of electricity generation. For several decades, the central question was not how to decarbonise the economy, but how to generate enough electricity to support development.

The oil shocks of the 1970s, however, fundamentally changed the way India viewed energy. The country recognised that dependence on imported fossil fuels was not simply an economic issue; it was a question of national security and strategic autonomy. This helped create the institutional foundations of India’s renewable-energy policy. In 1981, India established the Commission for Additional Sources of Energy, followed in 1982 by the Department of Non-Conventional Energy Sources. The institutional framework eventually evolved into today’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. In other words, India’s renewableenergy journey did not begin with the Paris Agreement; it began decades earlier.

During the 1980s and 1990s, India experimented with wind, biomass, small hydro and decentralised energy systems. These were still relatively small compared with coal and large hydro, but they created the technological, institutional and policy base from which the later renewable revolution would emerge. A decisive moment came in January 2010, when India launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. At the time, solar power was still relatively expensive and its contribution to India’s electricity system was tiny. The objective was extraordinarily ambitious: to create the policy conditions that would allow India to become a global leader in solar energy while simultaneously addressing energy security and climate change.

What followed is perhaps the most spectacular part of the story. India’s installed solar capacity was only around 2.8 GW in 2014. Solar subsequently moved from being a relatively marginal technology to becoming one of the central pillars of India’s electricity strategy. The government expanded its renewable ambitions dramatically, including the original target of 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022, with 100 GW of that coming from solar. But India’s contribution to the global energy transition was not limited to what it was doing at home.

ISA: India’s move from participant to architect

One of the most significant milestones came during COP21 in Paris in November 2015. On 30 November 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President François Hollande jointly launched the ISA on the sidelines of COP21. The initiative brought together countries rich in solar resources, particularly those located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, with the objective of accelerating the deployment of solar energy, reducing the cost of finance and technology and mobilising investment.

This was much more than a diplomatic initiative. India was effectively saying that the energy transition could not be designed only by the industrialised world. Countries of the Global South had to become architects of the transition themselves. The significance of the ISA is therefore easy to underestimate. India was no longer simply asking developed countries to finance its energy transition. It was attempting to create a platform through which solarrich developing countries could aggregate demand, reduce financing costs, share technology and accelerate deployment.

The organisation subsequently became a treaty-based intergovernmental organisation in December 2017, with its headquarters in India. Its founding vision was to facilitate the massive deployment of solar energy and mobilise investment on a global scale. That makes the ISA an important part of India’s energy story: India was not merely transitioning its own electricity system; it was attempting to internationalise the solar revolution. And there is a particularly interesting connection for Mauritius. Mauritius was among the countries that ratified the ISA framework agreement in its early phase. For a small island state sitting in the solarrich intertropical zone, this was potentially a very significant platform for technology, financing and energy cooperation.

From Paris to a national-scale renewable revolution

The years following Paris saw India’s renewable programme move into a completely different league. India subsequently committed to obtaining around 50% of its cumulative installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, alongside its broader climate commitments. It later raised its ambition to 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity by 2030 and announced its long-term objective of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.

What is remarkable is the speed at which the country has moved towards these objectives. In June 2025, India reached a historic milestone: 50% of its installed electricity-generation capacity came from non-fossil sources, more than five years ahead of the 2030 deadline associated with its Paris commitments. The Indian government reported that non-fossil installed capacity had risen from 32.54% in March 2014 to 50.08% in June 2025.

By the end of 2025, non-fossil capacity had risen further to approximately 266.8 GW, representing 51.93% of India’s total installed generation capacity. During 2025 alone, India added more than 48 GW of renewable capacity, including almost 38 GW of solar and more than 6 GW of wind. The transformation becomes even more striking when viewed through solar. From roughly 2.8 GW of solar capacity in 2014, India has moved to well over 160 GW today. That is not simply an energypolicy adjustment. It is a structural transformation of the electricity system. And importantly, India has done this while electricity demand continues to rise because its economy is still developing and millions of people are entering higher levels of energy consumption.

From renewable generation to an energy ecosystem

India’s transition is now entering a more complicated phase. Installing solar and wind capacity is one thing; integrating very large quantities of variable renewable electricity into a national grid is another. This is why the next chapter is increasingly about energy storage, batteries, pumped hydro, smart grids, transmission, green hydrogen, electric mobility and domestic manufacturing.

India is also trying to capture the industrial benefits of the transition. The objective is increasingly not simply to import solar panels and batteries but to develop domestic manufacturing capabilities in solar PV, batteries, electrolysers and other cleanenergy technologies. This is perhaps where India’s energy transition becomes particularly interesting from a development perspective.

India is trying to turn the energy transition into an industrial strategy. Solar is no longer regarded merely as an environmental technology. It is becoming part of India’s strategy for energy security, industrial competitiveness, technological development, employment and geopolitical influence. And that is ultimately what makes India’s trajectory so significant.

The Indian lesson

India’s story should not be romanticised. Coal remains central to its electricity system, and India’s overall energy consumption continues to grow. The country has not abandoned fossil fuels, nor is its transition complete. But that actually makes its achievement more significant. India has had to expand electricity generation enormously while simultaneously attempting to change its energy mix. It has had to address energy poverty, economic development, energy security and climate change at the same time. And it has done something particularly important: it has moved the energy transition from the realm of environmental aspiration into the realm of national development strategy.

The launch of the International Solar Alliance at COP21 was symbolic of that transformation. India was no longer simply a country being asked to decarbonise. It was beginning to position itself as one of the countries shaping how the developing world would decarbonise. As India enters its 80th year of independence, this may be one of the most important elements of its energy story. The country that once struggled to produce enough electricity to meet basic development needs is now building hundreds of gigawatts of non-fossil capacity, leading a global solar coalition, developing its own clean-energy industries and setting itself the ambition of 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030.

Renewables cross 50% five years ahead of schedule

By February 2026, India had reached a remarkable milestone, with renewables accounting for around 52% of its installed electricity capacity. In doing so, India had already crossed one of its major 2030 energytransition targets- achieving the 50% nonfossil capacity threshold five years ahead of schedule reflecting rapid progress in solar, wind, and hydro deployment. This marks a dramatic shift from just a decade ago, when renewables contributed less than 20% of output, and demonstrates that India’s energy transition is moving beyond installed capacity targets toward actual generation impact.

Despite this achievement, coal continues to provide a substantial portion of baseload power, and challenges remain in terms of grid flexibility, storage, and ensuring affordable, reliable supply. Nevertheless, reaching over half of electricity generation from renewables positions India as a global leader in energy transition and shows that ambitious policies – combined with market-scale solar and wind expansion – are beginning to reshape the energy system in practice, not just on paper.

Mauritius, the uncomfortable lesson in India’s success

India did not wait for the perfect technology, the perfect financing conditions or the perfect political moment. It created institutions, established targets, built markets, attracted investment and progressively increased its ambition.

The real lesson is therefore not that Mauritius should copy India. It is that an energy transition requires political continuity, institutional capacity, long-term planning and the willingness to treat energy policy as a national development strategy rather than as a collection of isolated projects.

And perhaps the most powerful irony is this: India, a country often described as one of the world’s major fossil-fuel consumers, has understood that the transition to clean energy is not simply about saving the planet. It is also about securing the country’s economic future.