India's solar push hits slowdown as transmission and demand gaps emerge

India's rapid solar boom is slowing as grid constraints, weak demand growth, stalled contracts, and rising storage needs push the sector into a recalibration phase

The past few months have seen an upheaval in India’s solar power sector. What was until recently a sunrise sector drawing record investments and adding new capacity at a record pace, has sudd­enly skidded to a phase of consolidation and recalibration, with the government saying it may not make sense to go for large-scale renewable energy bids amid a flattening of project pipelines. While the government aimed for a national target of tendering 50 gigawatt (Gw) annually with the larger aim of reaching 500 Gw of installed non-fossil fuel-based generation capacity, the country is now adding only 15-25