“For India to maintain tempo, the velocity of growth must be a lot quicker and each the urge for food and capabilities exist to make that attainable,” Praveer Sinha, chief government officer (CEO) and managing director, Tata Energy, mentioned at Mint’s Sustainability Summit on 3 September.
With an annual capability addition of 29.52GW, the entire put in renewable vitality (RE) capability within the nation has reached 220.10GW as of March 2025, up from 198.75GW within the earlier fiscal. India has set a goal of attaining 500GW of non-fossil fuel-based capability by 2030, as a part of its commitments beneath the ‘Panchamrit’ targets.
India’s Panchamrit targets embrace 5 local weather commitments, together with decreasing carbon emissions, carbon depth of the financial system and boosting renewable vitality, to realize net-zero emissions by 2070.
However know-how alone won’t drive the shift.
Business leaders flagged hurdles round land, transmission, financing and regulation which might be stalling adoption of unpolluted vitality. “There’s a restriction by way of geography of the place you will get land. The federal government has to work on that. Secondly, for thermal or nuclear energy you require 4 instances the capability of transmission traces. Getting approvals is a matter. Lastly, securing financing and guaranteeing that it’s at a aggressive fee is one other bottleneck,” Sinha added.
Land necessities fluctuate considerably by know-how, with thermal energy needing 3-5 acres per megawatt of capability, whereas wind requires vital spacing for generators. Photo voltaic land use usually ranges from 2 to 10 acres per MW, and a nuclear vitality facility requires 1.3 sq. miles per 1,000MW of put in capability.
He added that the issue of who buys the ability stays unresolved. “You may have utilities who’re already dedicated to long-term energy buy agreements. The query is how do they get out of it and begin shifting for these low value choices?,” mentioned Sinha. “The flexibility of those utilities to pay, who have already got big liabilities on their books and huge looming losses, poses one other hurdle.”
Delays or defaults in funds by distribution firms (discoms) stay a threat for buyers as a result of they will disrupt money flows and delay mission execution. State-owned discoms had gathered losses of ₹76.5 trillion by FY23, based on a Reserve Financial institution of India report in December.
For nuclear vitality, challenges stretch past land and financing. “Challenges stay the identical as others, with harsher laws for nuclear energy. Aside from land acquisition, water sourcing is one other hurdle,” mentioned B.V.S. Sekhar, government director, Nuclear Energy Corp. of India.
Public notion, too, is a giant problem for nuclear energy in India, however Sekhar mentioned the federal government is working to enhance situations. “We’re countering it, there may be rising appreciation. Many states are coming to assist us find websites, which earlier opposed Nuclear. After which, the availability chain is the difficulty, very much less producers who make nuclear-grade tools and elements,” he added.
India presently operates 25 nuclear reactors throughout seven places, with a complete put in capability of 8,880MW, contributing about 3% of the nation’s electrical energy technology, based on the ministry of energy.
Eight reactors with 6,600MW capability are beneath development, and one other ten reactors with 7,000MW capability are in pre-project levels. The federal government has set a goal of attaining 100GW of nuclear energy capability by 2047.
Essentially the most difficult situation is the price of the cleaner substitutes that’s slowing adoption.
On inexperienced hydrogen, Derek M. Shah, CEO and managing director, L&T Vitality GreenTech, mentioned, “The elephant within the room is why can we use a dearer substitute? Despite the fact that we do need to decarbonize, that is being addressed in a number of methods. Tech development in electrolyzers, renewable vitality, these are huge topics difficult the trade. That is probably in a stringent method being addressed by most.”
Gray hydrogen, produced from fossil fuels, presently prices about $1.80-$2.50 per kg in India, considerably lower than inexperienced hydrogen, which is projected to value round $3.80-$5.00 per kg in India by 2030, based on a Bain and Co. report in June 2025.
Regardless of the bottlenecks, the trade executives agreed that vitality transition is inevitable and must be pursued on a number of fronts. “Coal has been the workhorse for the final 5 a long time, however there is a chance to transition within the subsequent 10 to twenty years, if not instantly,” mentioned Sinha.
Gautam Reddy, CEO, AM Inexperienced, mentioned, “From tech readiness, coverage analysis and demand, renewables has superior much more. Hydrogen is beginning to take off, Nuclear remains to be a bit behind. So put your cash in all three, and you’ll do properly.”
The share of coal in India’s whole vitality technology elevated to 79% to 16,906 petajoules (PJ) in 2023-24, about two proportion factors greater than earlier yr, based on the ministry of statistics and program implementation’s (MoSPI) Vitality Statistics in India 2025. In the meantime, India is dedicated to realize the net-zero emission goal by 2070.
By way of investments within the sector, specialists consider that buyers ought to make balanced bets on all developed and rising vitality sources. “The problem of 2070 web zero is so big that we don’t have an ‘both or’ choice. All clear tech must be used, and be built-in over time,” mentioned Sekhar.
