Sunny Side up: India’s Journey to Energy Security

Environmental degradation coupled with the threat of climate change cast a dark cloud over India’s future economic growth. Many of the large Indian cities have highest level of air pollution concentration in the world. There is also a large section of poor population that still depends on biofuel for their heating and energy purpose at the household level, most farmers practice burning of crop residue at the end of the harvest season, and much of India’s energy is till generated from coal-based thermal power plants. India’s conventional sources of power generation are depleting fast and a situation leading up to an energy crisis is probable. To avoid such situation while mitigating the climate change risks, in the last decade, Indian government has focused on generating power using renewable sources (both grid-connected and off-grid) and to complement its efforts, it has devoted considerable amount of resources and political mandate towards this goal. This research tries to document the role of renewable energy, especially solar energy sector’s history, plot its recent trends, and understand the future challenges.