India’s renewable paradox: Analyst urges nationwide rooftop solar, battery revolution

By A Representative 

In a fervent appeal to civil society and policymakers, power and climate policy analyst Shankar Sharma has urged a massive campaign to prioritize rooftop solar panels, small- to medium-sized wind turbines, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) across India, arguing that this combination could drastically reduce the nation's reliance on coal, gas, nuclear power, and large-scale hydroelectric dams while minimizing the costs and risks of expanding the national grid.

Sharma's call comes amid growing concerns over ecological degradation despite India's touted leadership in renewable energy, highlighted by recent milestones such as surpassing 500 gigawatts in power capacity with renewables exceeding 50 percent of demand, as announced by the Press Information Bureau.

However, he points to paradoxes like surplus solar power leading to curtailments, with reports from the Economic Times indicating that India is increasingly curtailing solar output due to grid oversupply, and Down To Earth noting Karnataka's situation where abundant renewables coexist with up to 500 hours of annual shortages projected for 2027.

Sharma emphasizes global examples, including South Australia's big batteries supplying 40 percent of evening demand as reported by Renew Economy, Europe's largest battery project in Germany by Fluence Energy, and Adani's plans for India's biggest BESS, questioning why India favors environmentally damaging pumped storage plants (PSPs) over faster, more efficient BESS options that can be deployed in months rather than years.

He criticizes the push for PSPs, such as the controversial 2,000-megawatt Sharavati project in Karnataka's Western Ghats, which faces massive opposition for threatening biodiversity hotspots and river ecosystems, especially when states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh are tendering for standalone BESS up to 2,000 megawatts, and Karnataka itself has ordered smaller systems.

Sharma warns of national risks, including wasted renewable energy, financial losses from curtailments—reaching 20-25 percent in Rajasthan and up to 40 percent of solar output denied grid access on some days in October 2025—and the enormous costs of grid expansion, with investments projected at 13 trillion rupees in transmission infrastructure and 1.3 trillion in smart meters by 2035, according to Economic Times Energy.

He attributes these issues to inadequate demand-side management (DSM) and a lack of national or state energy policies, contrasting past inefficiencies like low plant load factors for coal plants with current mismatches between daytime solar peaks and evening demands.

Drawing from international successes, such as Australia's free electricity distribution from excess solar as covered by Futurism and El Diario, and China's 20-gigawatt-hour sodium-ion battery plant announced by PV Magazine, Sharma proposes solutions like mandating storage for larger solar and wind projects, installing BESS at existing substations to cut transmission losses, promoting distributed rooftop solar on farms to allow farmers to export excess power as seen in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and encouraging energy-intensive sectors like data centers and electric vehicles to self-supply via solar-wind-BESS hybrids.

He decries media focus on accolades, such as Union Minister Pralhad Joshi being named among the 100 most powerful climate leaders by Deccan Herald, while ignoring ecological harms from solar parks diverting forests, bird-obstructing power lines in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and unnecessary PSPs.

Sharma concludes that without political will and bureaucratic commitment to involve society in deliberations, India risks financial, social, and ecological crises that could derail economic growth, calling on institutions like IITs and IISc to study these matters and urging civil society organizations to advocate a consensus policy to governments for a sustainable power future.