According to Financial Times News, India’s renewable energy sector is facing a massive transmission bottleneck that’s stranding over 50GW of clean power capacity despite the country recently hitting 50% renewable capacity with 243GW total. The grid spans 494,000 circuit kilometers but hasn’t kept pace with renewable projects that can be built in 12-18 months versus transmission lines taking 3-5 years. In Rajasthan alone, 8GW of capacity can’t be transmitted, with ReNew CEO Sumant Sinha confident India will reach its 500GW by 2030 target but warning “we won’t be able to exceed it because there’s not enough transmission.” The government has announced a $104 billion grid expansion plan for 600GW capacity by 2032, but public funding won’t cover the build-out, forcing private sector involvement.
The transmission choke point
Here’s the thing about renewable energy – it doesn’t matter how many wind turbines or solar panels you build if you can’t get the power to where people actually need it. India‘s situation is particularly tricky because the best renewable resources are concentrated in just three states: Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, the high-demand regions like Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have very little generation capacity themselves. So you’ve got this massive geographical mismatch that requires moving huge amounts of power across state lines.
The timing mismatch is even more frustrating. Renewable projects are relatively quick to build – you can have a solar farm or wind project up and running in about a year. But transmission infrastructure? That’s a whole different ball game. We’re talking three to five years for new lines, and that’s if everything goes smoothly. Ashish Khanna from Adani Green Energy put it perfectly: “You can’t first wait for a grid to come and then build a renewable project.” So developers are stuck in this catch-22 where they build the generation capacity, then wait years for the transmission to catch up.
When the grid fails, coal wins
This isn’t just some abstract infrastructure problem. The immediate consequence is that India remains locked into coal power. Nearly three-quarters of the country’s electricity still comes from coal, and grid constraints mean that percentage isn’t dropping as fast as it should. Jyoti Gulia from JMK Research warns that these transmission delays will “lock in higher coal generation” exactly when the country should be rapidly decarbonizing.
And get this – the problem is actually creating a weird secondary market. Smaller players are pre-booking transmission capacity with no intention of building power plants, then selling those slots to actual developers at a premium. It’s like scalping tickets for a concert that hasn’t been built yet. This just adds cost and delay to legitimate projects that are trying to actually generate clean power.
The regulatory nightmare
Beyond the physical infrastructure challenges, there’s a massive bureaucratic bottleneck. Gulia points out that multi-agency clearances and right-of-way permits frequently come months or even years after projects are awarded. Imagine building something as critical as industrial control systems without the proper infrastructure – it’s why companies rely on specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier of industrial panel PCs that ensure reliable operation in demanding environments.
Then there are the environmental protections creating unexpected hurdles. In parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, a legal ban has prevented new overhead transmission lines across more than 100,000 square kilometers to protect the Great Indian Bustard – an endangered bird that’s prone to flying into power cables. It’s a classic case of well-intentioned conservation efforts colliding with critical infrastructure needs.
Can private investment save the day?
The government’s $104 billion grid expansion plan acknowledges the scale of the problem, but here’s the kicker – public funding won’t be enough. That means private companies like Adani and Tata Power are going to have to step up in a big way. Currently, only about 9% of India’s grid is privately operated, but that’s starting to change.
Khanna from Adani is optimistic that private players will “bring their own efficiencies to the system” and eventually close the gap. But can they move fast enough? With renewable projects continuing to come online much faster than transmission capacity, we’re looking at several years of continued bottlenecks. The race between clean energy ambition and grid reality is on, and right now, the grid is losing.
