India’s renewable energy transition has entered a decisive phase. This transition to renewable energy sources like solar has progressed from an experimental form of energy to the backbone of a cleaner and more reliable national power network. This moment is special not just because of the size of India’s growth in renewable energy, but it’s also noteworthy due to how advanced the technology has become.
India’s strategy for solar energy and renewable energy as a whole, has evolved to be based largely on efficient, integrated and reliable ways to deploy renewable energy through a supportive policy environment that views renewable energy sources as long-term infrastructure instead of focusing simply on the capacity the energy can produce short term.
India’s solar installed capacity grew from less than 3 GW in 2014 to just over 130 GW in 2023, a growth rate of over 40 times; however, the next phase of India’s growth will be driven much more by intelligent use of the megawatts of power that have been produced versus simply how many megawatts are generated.
Efficiency as the New Commercial Baseline
There has been a significant change in solar power technology. High-performance solar panels have moved from being mostly used in research facilities to being commonplace in commercial projects. In addition, new cell designs, advanced inverters, and artificial intelligence-based monitoring are contributing to greater than 23% efficiency levels of solar panels, allowing more power to be produced from a given amount of land.
In India where there are issues with land availability and population density, high efficiency solar panels are not just a benefit, they’re a critical requirement for doing business. Increased panel efficiency helps to reduce the pressure on land, reduce the life-cycle cost of a solar installation, and improve project viability. India has taken an approach of leapfrogging incremental steps of technological adoption by utilizing proven global technologies on a large scale.
This trend is not only an Indian phenomenon, but reflects a global trend of renewable energy investments exceeding fossil fuel investments and rapidly increasing the share of electricity produced with solar power. With the continued increase in efficiency of solar panels, this technology has transitioned from being an intermittent to a pivotal part of future electricity planning.
Policy as a Catalyst for Quality
Technology progress in India is not occurring in isolation; it is reinforced by deliberate policy design. Government incentives are increasingly tied to performance and manufacturing capability rather than basic assembly capacity. Production-linked incentive schemes for domestic solar manufacturing have mobilised tens of thousands of crores in investment, steering the industry toward high-value, high-efficiency production.
This regulatory shift is critical. Solar infrastructure must perform reliably for decades. By embedding quality benchmarks into procurement and manufacturing incentives, policymakers are ensuring that India’s energy transition is durable, not disposable. The focus has moved from rapid installation to long-term reliability — a sign of sectoral maturity.
Solar at the Household Level: A Structural Shift
The PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana is among the most ambitious solar projects for homes on a worldwide scale. By pursuing rooftop solar for 1 crore residential buildings, this plan is creating millions of different energy generating homes across India. This will install about 30 GW of rooftop generation capacity and provide relief to grid-connected power supplies while lowering energy bills for consumers.
The project normalises home use of solar power outside of its numerical goals. It includes integrating renewable energy into everyday life and creating demand for compact, very high-efficiency manufactured goods designed mainly for urban use on rooftops. India is pursuing this project similar to markets such as Australia and parts of Europe, where distributed solar has established large numbers of “prosumers” — consumers that create their own energy.
The End of Intermittency and the 24/7 Reality
The criticism that long-term solar power has received due to its inconsistency will soon go away as developments are being made in both battery storage systems and hybridisation of existing electrical systems. The number of storage devices being deployed throughout the world at unprecedented rates, including in India where they have begun to include storage systems as part of their future technologies, will further cement this idea.
Solar & storage projects are fundamentally changing our perception of what we can expect from the electrical grid. For large organisations and urban centres where uninterrupted supplies of electricity are critical to their operations, the use of renewable energy as an alternative to traditional forms of energy will become commonplace to them. As intelligent management of the electrical grid and integration of batteries into our existing system continues to develop, the gap between the definitions of intermittent and dependable energy will continue to disappear.
A Blueprint for the Future
India has already achieved 50% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources ahead of its 2030 target, underscoring the speed of its energy transition. Solar dominates new capacity additions and increasingly shapes national energy strategy.
The lesson is clear: technology alone does not transform energy systems — policy alignment does. By combining efficiency-driven innovation with regulatory discipline and social inclusion, India is building a renewable ecosystem that is reliable, scalable, and equitable.
As global energy markets evolve, India’s experience offers a blueprint for emerging economies. Solar is no longer an alternative energy experiment. It is infrastructure — central to economic growth, energy security, and climate responsibility.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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