> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://signals.joincomrades.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 29 Sep 2026 · Editorial > Comrades Editorial of 29 Sep 2026, by news group. > **[Comrades Editorial · 29 Sep 2026 (PDF)](https://dl.joincomrades.com/e/29-09-26)** *** ## In this edition 1. [India’s Transition to a Clean Energy Future](#h-1) Infrastructure & Energy ## Infrastructure & Energy ### India’s Transition to a Clean Energy Future [Source](https://www.drishtiias.com/current-affairs-news-analysis-editorials/news-editorials/29-09-2026) This editorial is based on “India’s clean energy transition promises growth, greener future” published in the Indian Express on 28/09/2026. The article highlights that India crossed 200 GW in renewable capacity through key solar and hydrogen initiatives. However, grid congestion, DISCOM distress, and critical mineral risks demand focused structural reforms. Over the past 12 years, India has transitioned from a conventional fuel-dependent economy into a global clean energy leader by adhering to the core principle that economic growth and environmental responsibility must move together. India’s renewable energy (RE) capacity has crossed 200 GW, constituting nearly 45% of total installed electricity capacity, while thermal and nuclear power continue to supply essential baseload electricity demand. Expansion of decentralised renewable energy systems delivers reliable electricity for education, healthcare, digital connectivity, and rural enterprises, fostering gender inclusion and energy security. **How is India Advancing its Clean Energy Transition?** * **Solar Energy Expansion:** * India is witnessing rapid expansion in solar power capacity through utility-scale projects, rooftop installations and agricultural solarisation to meet rising electricity demand while empowering consumers. * By August 2026, India had around 168 GW of installed solar capacity. The short-term acceleration is evident from the addition of 17.78 GW of solar capacity between April and August 2026. * PM Surya Ghar benefited around 51 lakh households with 14 GW rooftop solar capacity, while PM-KUSUM solarised 14 lakh pumps in 2025–26, reducing diesel dependence and enabling farmers to earn from surplus power. * India’s solar manufacturing capacity expanded from 74 GW to 172 GW in 2025–26, with PLI-supported manufacturers entering production, while cell and wafer localisation under Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) remains crucial to reduce import dependence. * **Wind Energy Revival and Hybrid Renewable Expansion:** * India is strengthening its wind energy ecosystem through new capacity additions, and hybrid renewable projects. * By August 2026, India had around 58 GW of installed wind capacity. Between April and August 2026, India added around 2.43 GW of wind capacity, supported by reverse auctions, wind-solar hybrid tenders and improved transmission infrastructure. * The focus is shifting towards repowering legacy wind farms, especially in high-potential states such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, to improve capacity utilisation through modern high-capacity turbines. * **Stronger Renewable Power Transmission:** * New transmission infrastructure is connecting renewable-rich regions with demand centres and reducing the risk of generation being stranded. * Under the Green Energy Corridor programme, India had commissioned 9,856 circuit km of transmission lines and 24,300 MVA of substation capacity to evacuate about 24 GW of renewable power. * The Central Electricity Authority’s March 2026 plan envisages transmission for integrating over 900 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2035–36. This makes power evacuation and grid congestion central concerns in project planning. * **Expansion of Energy Storage:** * Storage is being developed to make variable solar and wind generation more useful during evening peaks and other periods of high demand. * As of June 2026, 15,870 MW/95,220 MWh of pumped storage and 15,754 MW/42,530 MWh of battery storage were under construction. * The government has announced viability-gap funding for 13.8 GWh of battery storage and approved support for another 30 GWh. These measures support peak shifting, grid flexibility and more dependable renewable power; capacities under construction are not yet operational. * **Industrial Green Hydrogen Demand:** * Policy is moving beyond production targets by connecting green hydrogen projects to buyers in fertilisers and refining. * Under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, 8.62 lakh tonnes per annum of production capacity had been awarded to 18 companies by March 2026. Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had discovered prices for supplying 7.24 lakh tonnes per annum of green ammonia to 13 fertiliser units. * Another 20,000 tonnes per annum of green-hydrogen supply capacity had been awarded for refineries. This demand aggregation gives projects identifiable buyers. * **Electrification of Urban Bus Fleets:** * The transport transition is expanding from incentives for individual vehicles to public fleets and their supporting infrastructure. * PM E-DRIVE has allocated ₹4,391 crore for 14,028 electric buses, including 13,800 buses allocated across 7 large cities, and ₹2,000 crore for public charging stations. * Charging infrastructure and payment security for operators are important to sustained deployment. * **Biofuels and Circular Bioenergy:** * Renewable fuels are extending the transition beyond electricity while creating uses for agricultural and organic waste. * India reached its E20 ethanol-blending target in 2025. Compressed biogas (CBG) offers another route by converting crop residue, cattle dung and organic waste into fuel and bio-slurry. * As of August 2026, 1,929 CBG/Bio-CNG plants were registered, while 217 were commissioned and 357 were under construction. The August 2026 GOBARdhan National Circular Bioenergy Scheme supports this pathway. What are the Major Constraints in India’s Clean Energy Transition? * **Variable Renewables, Storage Gaps & Continued Coal Dependence:** * Adding solar and wind capacity creates a growing need for power that can be supplied after sunset and during low-wind periods. * The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) envisages 174 GW/888 GWh of storage by 2035–36, comprising battery storage and pumped hydro. Delivering that scale requires projects, transmission connections and contracts to progress together. * In the same planning scenario, coal supplies a projected 51% of gross electricity generation in 2035–36, although its share of installed capacity falls to 28%. * The gap shows why generation mix and evening reliability matter alongside capacity targets. These are projections, rather than outcomes already achieved. * **Transmission Grid Congestion & Renewable Power Evacuation Bottlenecks:** * Large renewable projects need timely connections to carry electricity from resource-rich regions to demand centres. * The government plans to expand the transmission network from 5.09 lakh circuit-kilometres in June 2026 to 6.48 lakh by 2032. Planned inter-regional transfer capacity rose from 120 GW to 168 GW over that period. These figures indicate the scale of infrastructure still to be built. * A solar or wind farm can therefore face evacuation constraints even when its generating equipment is ready. Delays in a connecting substation or interstate line can defer usable output and revenue; the risk is especially consequential where renewable projects are concentrated in a few regions. * **Renewable Auction Backlogs & Financially Stressed DISCOM Power Offtake:** * Winning a renewable auction does not by itself secure a buyer for the electricity. * As of September 2025, about 44 GW of solar capacity awarded through bids lacked signed power sale agreements (PSAs) with purchasers. This describes awarded capacity awaiting contracts, rather than completed plants sitting idle. * Distribution companies (DISCOMs) also face uneven financial capacity to commit to new purchases. * A February 2026 parliamentary reply recorded ₹6,77,561 crore in accumulated state-sector distribution losses as of March 2025; national aggregate technical and commercial losses stood at 15.04% in FY2024–25. * **Critical Mineral Concentration & Upstream Supply Chain Vulnerabilities:** * Domestic assembly does not yet guarantee secure access to the materials and intermediate products behind clean-energy equipment. * The Ministry of Mines reported FY2024–25 imports of 2,997 tonnes of lithium, 2,425 tonnes of cobalt and 13,006 tonnes of rare-earth elements. These figures show substantial import exposure. * In solar manufacturing, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) says ingots and wafers remain heavily import-dependent. This leaves upstream processing capacity a distinct challenge from module manufacturing * **Land Acquisition, Rights-of-Way & Ecological Conflict in Energy Corridors:** * Project sites and power lines must be planned around land use, local rights and sensitive habitats. * The Ministry of Power identifies rights-of-way (RoW), land acquisition and forest clearances among the implementation issues that delay transmission projects. Each can affect the route and completion date of infrastructure needed to connect renewables. * E.g., in the Great Indian Bustard case, the Supreme Court directed mitigation of power lines in sensitive Rajasthan habitat, including undergrounding 250 km of critical lines identified by the Wildlife Institute of India within a specified period. * **Coal Belt Livelihoods & Uneven Just Transition Planning:** * Changes to coal mines and power stations affect contractors, local businesses and communities as well as permanent employees. * A Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) study estimates that coal-fired thermal power plants directly employ 3.2–4 lakh people nationwide. Its field research finds particularly high vulnerability among informal contract workers and people whose livelihoods depend indirectly on a plant. * **High Capital Costs & International Green Finance Shortfall:** * The price and availability of long-term finance shape renewable tariffs and the viability of newer clean technologies. * The International Energy Agency (IEA) found that the cost of capital for utility-scale solar in India was about 80% higher than in advanced economies in its case study, citing regulatory, currency and purchaser-payment risks. * A 2026 NITI Aayog net-zero financing scenario estimates $22.7 trillion in investment needs through 2070 against $16.2 trillion in available finance, a modelled \$6.5 trillion gap. It says international sources could meet up to 42% of total needs if the gap is bridged. * **Solar Photovoltaic Waste & Circular Economy Infrastructure Deficits:** * Rapid deployment will eventually produce a large stream of damaged, replaced and retired panels. * CEEW projects approximately 11.22 million tonnes of cumulative solar-module waste by 2047 under its installation assumptions. * It estimates a need for 299 recycling facilities, each processing 3,600 tonnes annually, with about ₹4,274 crore in facility investment. What Steps can India Take to Accelerate its Clean Energy Transition? * **Modernise Transmission Through Smarter Use of Existing Corridors:** * Build essential lines while extracting more dependable capacity from the network already in service. * Deploy dynamic line rating where suitable, alongside power-flow control, grid-strength equipment and solar-hour/non-solar-hour connectivity. These tools address different constraints: line rating can reveal available carrying capacity, while STATCOMs and synchronous condensers support voltage stability. * The Draft National Electricity Policy, 2026 proposes several of these technologies; its proposals should be treated as a roadmap, not as measures already implemented everywhere. * **Scaling Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) and Closed-Loop Hydro:** * To provide non-chemical, long-duration grid balancing, India must fast-track its Roadmap to 100 GW of Pumped Storage Projects by 2035–36 issued by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). * Prioritizing off-stream closed-loop systems—which utilize off-river reservoirs—drastically shortens gestation periods (under 4 years) and minimizes hydrological and environmental clearance hurdles. * Pairing short-response Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for rapid frequency regulation with high-capacity PSPs for 8–12 hour multi-day shifting ensures a firm, round-the-clock (RTC) green power supply. * **Critical Mineral Sovereignty & Upstream Hydrometallurgy:** * Move beyond overseas asset acquisition (e.g., KABIL's lithium blocks in Argentina) to build domestic midstream processing and hydrometallurgical refining facilities for Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, and Rare Earth Elements (REEs). * Incentivize the deployment of alternative battery chemistries (e.g., Sodium-ion, Iron-air, Redox Flow) through target-driven Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes to break geopolitical supply chain monopolies in lithium-ion manufacturing. * **Distributed Microgrids and 'Virtual Power Plants' (VPPs):** * Integrate millions of rooftop solar systems installed under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana into cloud-managed Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). * Using bi-directional smart meters and automated control software, VPPs allow DISCOMs to aggregate decentralized rooftop solar and EV batteries to feed power back into the grid during peak load hours. * Establish mandatory Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) protocols in the national EV charging standards to utilize India's rapidly growing electric vehicle fleet as distributed energy storage units. * **Create Local Energy Islands for Essential Public Services:** * Design distributed renewables to maintain critical services when the wider grid fails. * Prioritise solar-plus-storage microgrids for district hospitals, drinking-water systems, telecom sites and disaster shelters in cyclone, flood and landslide-prone areas. * Specify islanding capability, hours of backup, maintenance responsibility and periodic restoration tests in procurement contracts. * **Use Place-Based Consent, Biodiversity Safeguards & Livelihood Planning:** * Make project siting and the shift away from coal workable for affected communities. * Screen proposed renewable parks and transmission routes for common-land use, grazing access and wildlife corridors before auctions; disclose route options and provide clear compensation and grievance processes. * Prepare district-level transition plans in coal regions before closures or repurposing decisions, covering contract workers, informal livelihoods, skills, land restoration and replacement local revenue. * **Circular Economy Mandates & Solar PV Recycling Ecosystem:** * Establish strict, traceable recovery targets under the E-Waste Management Rules specifically tailored for decommissioned solar PV modules, wind turbine blades, and utility BESS units. * Set up state-subsidized, specialized hydrometallurgical recycling parks to safely extract high-value silver, industrial-grade silicon, tellurium, and copper, preventing heavy-metal leaching in landfills while securing secondary raw materials. **Conclusion** * India’s clean energy transition has moved beyond capacity addition towards building a reliable, resilient and inclusive energy ecosystem. The next phase must integrate renewable generation with storage, transmission modernisation, domestic manufacturing, critical-mineral security and circular-economy systems. Equally important is a people-centric transition that protects livelihoods, biodiversity and community interests. By combining technological innovation with sound regulation, green finance and decentralised energy solutions, India can reconcile energy security, economic growth and climate responsibility, while strengthening its position in the global clean-energy landscape. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.