Vivek Harivyasi Explains Why India Must Synchronize Policy, Skill Development, and Innovation for a Green Economy

India’s Renewable Ambition: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Path Ahead

India’s goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 is ambitious but achievable. The real challenge isn’t intent—it’s synchronization. As of mid-2025, India has crossed 190 GW of non-fossil capacity, spanning solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear. Yet transmission lines, storage solutions, and payment discipline often lag behind, causing curtailment, scheduling uncertainty, and reliability issues.

The opportunity lies in aligning transmission corridors, storage procurement, and DISCOM reforms. This would mean not just adding megawatts but delivering affordable, clean, 24x7 power to homes, MSMEs, and industry. For example, integrating 100 GW of firm renewable power into evening peak demand using hybrid solar-battery models could revolutionize energy supply.

Socio-economic impacts are huge. Cleaner air, reduced import dependence, and localized manufacturing can trigger a jobs flywheel. However, this only happens if legacy coal regions and informal-sector workers are supported through structured reskilling, targeted transition grants, and tariff certainty for distributed energy users. India’s momentum in non-fossil capacity is strong; the next step is converting installed potential into dependable green kilowatt-hours.

Skilling India’s Workforce for Renewable Growth

The Skill India Mission and PMKVY initiatives must evolve to reflect real-world conditions. Training should feel like working on the shop floor—not sitting in a classroom. Solar courses should go beyond panel mounting to include inverter diagnostics, earthing checks, and DC/AC fault analysis. Wind energy programs should teach blade inspection, vibration analysis, and safe work-at-height practices. Green hydrogen programs must cover electrolyzer operations, water treatment, compression, and storage with safety SOPs.

Smart classrooms must become “smart yards” equipped with virtual reality, digital twins, and real-time failure simulations. PMKVY should make micro-credentials stackable and project-linked, and use Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to transition electricians, welders, riggers, and instrumentation techs into renewable roles.

If credentials live in Digi Locker, map to NSQF, and carry industry endorsements, placement won’t be a promise—it’ll be the default. Workers should gain fluency in SCADA, sensor calibration, and SOP adherence, allowing them to operate, troubleshoot, and lead.

Leapfrogging Traditional Energy Development Models

India can leapfrog conventional energy models when markets and engineering speak the same language. The key is making round-the-clock green power bankable with standardized contracts, secure payments, and time-of-day pricing that rewards flexibility—like higher evening peak rates attracting hybrid battery models.

Hydrogen’s promise hinges on anchoring offtake in refineries, fertilizers, and steel while scaling domestic electrolyzer manufacturing to cut costs through volume. The target is 5 MMT of green hydrogen annually by 2030, achievable if the first 100 industrial offtakers are secured with incentives and infrastructure support.

Green corridors between states should be built ahead of generation capacity, not as an afterthought. India must enforce recycling and quality standards to avoid a future junkyard of discarded panels and turbine blades. Public sector procurement calendars should be predictable and multi-year, while the private sector must ensure execution discipline, transparent bids, and data-backed asset performance.

Preparing the Workforce for the Clean Tech Revolution

Every technical role must also be a digital role. Solar O&M engineers should handle SCADA data, anomaly detection, and cybersecurity hygiene. Wind technicians need to master drone inspections, sensor reliability checks, and condition monitoring alerts.

Imagine technicians using AR goggles to overlay sensor diagnostics on live turbine blades or solar supervisors running performance analytics from cloud dashboards. That’s the future-ready workforce.

Supervisors must earn micro-credentials in power markets, asset performance management, and root-cause analytics to make confident decisions. Training should include live plant apprenticeships, real-data capstone projects, and performance-based assessments—not just theory.

Digital literacy alongside domain expertise must become standard. With this "hands-on plus digital" approach, India won’t just operate world-class assets—it will design and build them.

Entrepreneurship’s Role in Scaling Green Solutions

Entrepreneurs turn policy into usable products. Hidden opportunities include battery storage integration, inverter repair networks, uptime guarantee models, O&M analytics that improve plant load factors, remanufacturing of critical spares, agri-solar services to boost farmer incomes, grid-aware EV charging, and hydrogen balance-of-plant solutions.

The ecosystem must pair predictable procurement calendars with innovation carveouts and results-based finance linked to uptime or kWh delivered. Green credit lines can de-risk first-of-a-kind projects.

Startups should be embedded in Skill India hubs, where they co-train local youth, test products in real settings, and build their service networks from the technician base. If India aligns capital, capability, and customers, startups will stop building demos and start building industries.