India’s Green Transformation: Reflections on World Energy Conservation Day 2024
India’s Green Transformation: Reflections on World Energy Conservation Day 2024
Published on :- December 24th, 2024
December 14th is World Energy Conservation Day. It is observed to raise awareness on the value of energy use in daily life, its scarcity, and its effect on the viability of global ecosystems.
The theme for the 2024 National Energy Conservation Day is "Green Transformation, Energy Saving", aiming to:
- Demonstrate India's achievements in energy efficiency and conservation
- Work towards holistic development as part of the nation's overall effort towards climate change mitigation
- Emphasise the importance of diversifying energy sources and reducing reliance on non-renewable resources
- Reflect on the energy challenges the world faces and emphasise the urgency of finding sustainable solutions
Growing energy demands in India have driven the needs to shift to cleaner fuels and larger energy systems. There has been a thrust to increase installed generating capacity of power and to decrease the reliance on primary fossil fuels to cater to the rising needs for energy.
In this edition of Data Dialogue, we look at energy usage in India and its changing scenarios.
As of 2024, India’s cumulative installed capacity of energy reached 441.97 GW, marking a 60.1% increase from 2014- 15. The annual renewable energy (RE) capacity growth has consistently exceeded 6%, compared to 3% for non-RE. RE accounted for its highest ever share this year with total installed capacity standing at ~ 43%.
The total energy generation in India was ~1,734.12 billion units during 2023-24 with a staggering growth of 56.8% in a decade. However, the share of energy generation by renewable sources has stayed at an average of 20% during this decade.
It is worthy to note here that not all capacity is viable to be transformed into energy generation and it does not lead to an equal amount of generation due to production losses and so on.
Note:
- Installed capacity refers to the total amount of power a country or region can generate, while energy generation refers to the amount of power that is produced.
- Renewable energy (RE) constitutes hydro (large & small), solar, wind and bio-power. Renewable energy sources (RES) excludes large hydro power systems.
Installed capacity of total Renewable Sources - RE (hydro and RES) has grown two-fold in the last decade and Renewable Energy Sources - RES (such as solar, wind, bio-power, and small hydro) increased by 259.5% specifically, highlighting the substantial advancement in these sectors. By 2024, RE installations peaked adding 18.56 GW of energy (~10% increase), significantly outpacing the 7.35 GW (~3% increase) added by non-RE sources.
As of 2023-24, energy generation from renewable energy sources contributed 359.89 BU, accounting for 20.8% of the total generation, registering a growth of 88.46% from that of 2014-15. Renewable energy generation from solar power, wind power, bio power and small hydro power has shown an impressive growth of 265.89%, underscoring substantial advancements in India’s renewable energy sector. Note: Not all capacity is viable to be transformed into energy generation and it does not lead to an equal amount of generation due to production losses etc.
In the last decade, the growing share of RES (solar, wind,bio-power and hydro power) in installed capacity signals a significant shift towards renewable energy adoption from a 14% to 32% share while energy generation share has only increased from 6% to 13% in RES . This gap between capacity and generation for renewables highlights the need for improvements in storage, transmission, and efficiency to maximise their contribution. Thermal energy, though dominant, is seeing a gradual decline, likely due to policies promoting sustainability and clean energy transitions.
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu emerged as the top five states for India’s renewable energy generation - including large hydro - in 2023-24, collectively contributing around 56% of the country’s total renewable energy output. 100% of the total energy generated in the North and North-eastern states is from renewable sources, while central regions lag behind, highlighting disparities in infrastructure, resource availability, and policy support.
States with lower share in renewable energy output represent significant untapped potential, offering opportunities to expand India’s renewable energy footprint further.
With the increasing focus on sustainable use of energy, understanding energy consumption in any economy is crucial to analysing how final demand drives energy use. Electricity is a large component of energy and total electricity consumption has increased steadily and stood at its highest ~1.40 million GWh in 2022-23, highlighting expanding energy needs due to economic growth and urbanisation.
More than 1/3rd of the energy demand in India is driven by industrial growth while domestic electrification is also continuously increasing from owning a 21.8% energy use share in 2011 to 25.8% share in 2022. However, the share of energy for agricultural use has remained consistent over the year.
Per capita consumption of electricity has more than doubled during the last two decades 2003-23. As of 2023, the national average for electricity consumption stands at 1331 Kwh per person. Half of India’s states/UTs consume more than the national average, with Goa and Punjab leading at -3360 Kwh and 2574 Kwh per person respectively. Apart from these, per capita energy consumption in the states of Odisha, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana has been more than 2000 KWh.Largely the states with per capita GSDP of more than INR 2 Lakh consume ~1500+ KWh per person.
Few exceptions being smaller states such as Sikkim, Goa, Delhi where the per capita GSDP is very high, but the per-capita consumption of energy is relatively low. Also, Odisha and Chhattisgarh have relatively higher per capita consumption in comparison to their per capita GSDP. This highlights apart from the economic status of the state, various other factors influence the consumption of energy.
To track energy efficiency initiatives in the states and UTs, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power (BEE) in collaboration with Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) has developed ‘The State Energy Efficiency Index (SEEI)’.
SEEI uses 65 qualitative, quantitative, and outcome-based indicators distributed across seven demand sectors, namely: Buildings, Industries, Municipal Services, Transport, Agriculture, DISCOMs, and Cross-Sector and provides insights about sub-national energy efficiency policies, programmes, and investments. As per SEEI 2023, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh emerged as top performers with outstanding scores of 86.25 and 83.25 out of 100, respectively.
India is the third-largest energy consumer in the world. With its rapid economic growth and accelerated urbanisation, the demand for energy will continue to grow. It becomes imperative for India to work towards its sustainable development goal of providing universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services by 2030.
With more than 40% of India’s installed capacity being from renewable sources, more than 20% of generation from renewable sources and numerous energy conservation initiatives such as Street Lighting National Programme, UJALA, National Green Hydrogen Mission and others, India is on the path to achieve its renewable energy target of achieving 500 GW from non-fossil sources by 2030.
To explore other data assets on SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy click here.