India’s renewable energy expansion is creating fresh challenges around transmission availability, land allocation and grid integration, while green hydrogen is expected to add to renewable power demand
India’s target of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based power capacity is shifting attention from capacity addition alone to the transmission infrastructure and grid readiness required to integrate new renewable energy projects. The expansion is taking place through multiple channels, including central and state-led tenders, rooftop solar, commercial projects and programmes such as PM-KUSUM.
Speaking to BW Businessworld on the sidelines of S&P Global Energy’s Horizons Clean Energy Expansion India 2026, Prasad Chaphekar, Director, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), said the 500 GW target was a national objective rather than one limited to the ministry.
“It is a country’s target, not MNRE’s target. It does not mean that everything is done through MNRE. For example, the solar rooftop scheme also counts towards the 500 GW target. The plants are developed by commercial companies on their own, and those additions also count. States conducting their own tenders also contribute to the target,” Chaphekar said.
Chaphekar added that the National Green Hydrogen Mission would create additional renewable energy demand, with the government estimating that achieving its target of producing 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen annually would require 125 GW of renewable energy capacity.
“We are expanding on all fronts. We are not just looking at big renewable energy projects in one location, but also smaller renewable energy projects. PM-KUSUM has also been taken up by the states. We also have the Hydrogen Mission, which has its own demand for renewable energy. We estimate that meeting our target of five million tonnes would require 125 GW of renewable energy,” he added.
Transmission Planning Evolves
The increase in renewable generation is also changing the way transmission infrastructure is planned. Rajesh Kumar, Chief General Manager, Central Transmission Utility of India (CTUIL), said the focus was no longer limited to connecting individual generation projects to the grid, but it also involved integrating different resources and managing the technical requirements associated with them.
“Connecting renewable energy projects to the grid is not simply a matter of interconnection. We have to integrate multiple resources and ensure that they operate together effectively,” Kumar said.
Transmission planning for the 500 GW target has been undertaken based on inputs from MNRE regarding potential renewable energy development areas. However, implementing the planned infrastructure, particularly at the interstate level, remains a challenge. Strengthening intrastate transmission networks will also be necessary to move electricity from generation centres to the wider grid.
The geographical mismatch between land availability and transmission infrastructure is another issue facing developers. Sudhir Pathak, Chief Science and Technology Officer, Hero Future Energies, pointed to the uneven distribution of land and grid connectivity across renewable energy development regions. “There is a slight paradox where you have a lot of land, like in Rajasthan, but you do not have transmission as of now. Where you have a lot of transmission, you do not have land,” Pathak said.
Pathak said developers, transmission utilities and government authorities were coordinating to address these challenges as renewable energy projects expanded across different locations.
The integration of renewable energy also requires changes in grid management, including reactive power management and the ability to respond to the technical characteristics of variable renewable generation. As more solar and wind capacity is connected, transmission planning will have to account for the interaction between different sources rather than treating each project as an isolated addition.
Captive Hydrogen Projects
The expansion of green hydrogen is expected to add another layer of demand for renewable electricity. Vasundhara Sen, Head of Policy and Regulation, Thermax, said distributed industrial hydrogen projects could offer an alternative to relying exclusively on large, centralised production facilities. “I see a lot of merit in distributed industrial hydrogen captive for multiple reasons,” she added.
Captive and group-captive structures could allow industrial consumers to align renewable power procurement with their hydrogen production requirements. However, the viability of these models will depend on factors such as the availability of renewable power, transmission access, regulatory conditions and the economics of electrolyser utilisation.
The development of smaller projects could also create additional requirements for grid connectivity and renewable power procurement. This makes coordination between industrial users, developers, transmission utilities and regulators important as the hydrogen ecosystem expands.
Alongside conventional renewable energy sources, companies are also exploring alternative technologies for generating electricity. Geeta Singh, Director, Redstack Energy India, suggested technologies based on energy generated at water interfaces, including river and ocean systems and desalination wastewater. “Since water is continuously flowing, we can generate continuous energy, or we call it round-the-clock energy,” she noted.
Such technologies remain part of a broader effort to diversify clean energy sources and improve the availability of electricity. However, the immediate challenge for India’s 500 GW renewable energy expansion is ensuring that generation capacity is matched by land availability, transmission infrastructure, and the grid systems required to integrate power from multiple locations.
Aditi Das
BW Reporters The author is a Trainee Correspondent at BW Businessworld. She is a postgraduate with a passion for research and storytelling. Curious by nature, she enjoys writing and exploring new ideas and perspectives.
