Grid, power sector and energy policy

Prelims and Mains

India's non fossil build has run ahead of its own timetable, so the question has stopped being how much can be generated. It has become whether the wires can move that power and the batteries can hold it until it is wanted.

• Non fossil capacity has crossed 300 GW, and renewables reached a record 20 per cent of generation in July 2026.
• About 283 GW of renewables are installed against a target of 500 GW by 2030.

Prelims and Mains

Solar and wind generate when the weather allows rather than when demand asks, and Indian demand peaks after sunset while the panels work at midday. Where neither the wires nor the load can take the power, the cheapest answer is to switch some of it off, and the loss falls on the generator.

• 8,133 million units of solar generation were cut in the first half of 2026, with peaks of 8.6 GW in western India and 5.6 GW in the north.
• Capacity connected on temporary network access is curtailed first, and those projects are losing 30 to 50 per cent of their output.
• New renewable auctions have slowed sharply, and 40 to 45 GW of awarded capacity has no signed power purchase agreement.
• Moving demand into solar hours, through industrial electrification, workplace charging and time of day tariffs, would leave less to cut.
• Pairing rooftop solar with a home battery lets a household hold its own midday surplus until the evening.
• Treating curtailment as a paid grid service rather than an uncompensated loss would stop the whole cost falling on the generator.

Prelims and Mains

A coal or hydro turbine spins, and the weight of that spinning mass steadies the grid's frequency on its own. Solar and wind reach the grid through power electronics instead, so a grid leaning on them has less of that steadying to draw on.

• Solar and wind are inverter based resources, which give none of the rotating inertia a turbine does.
• That shows up as a lower short circuit ratio, a measure of grid strength, leaving voltage and frequency less stable.