Solar transition: Reforms needed to improve long-term performance

Grid-level constraints compound the problem. Solar generation is geographically concentrated, while transmission capacity and energy storage remain severely inadequate

India is making progress on clean energy. More than 50 per cent of the country’s installed electricity capacity is now based on non-fossil sources — a milestone achieved five years ahead of target. Solar power has been the dominant driver of this shift, aided by an expansion in domestic module manufacturing, owing to strong policy support. Yet, as a new parliamentary standing committee report on energy makes clear, merely scaling up solar capacity is not enough. If efficiency and system readiness fall behind, it could jeopardise the country’s renewable-energy goals in the long term. The most striking gap lies in