Working to turn ambition into reality: The politics and economics of India’s turn to renewable power

Abstract

India’s economy has been a leader among developing nations, with gross domestic product (GDP) growing at 6.9 percent between financial year (FY) 2012 and FY 2018.4 Energy and electricity demand have grown along with the economy and India now has the third-largest electricity grid in the world, with a gross installed capacity of 344 gigawatts (GW) in March 2018 (the end of FY 2018). Nonetheless, with India’s population of about 1.4 billion people, the grid supplies just under 900 kilowatt hours (kWh) of generation per capita (FY 2018), which is one-third of the world average and 14 times less than average U.S. consumption. In addition to low average consumption, approximately 32 million homes still lack an electricity connection as of April 2018.6 The Indian government has ambitious plans to connect all homes to electricity by 2019.