India shows the way on energy transformation
As a result of India’s ambitious, innovative electrification effort, the country has thus far added 24.2 GW of renewable energy in 2023-2024
Electricity demand is booming around the world. As the digital economy expands and evolves with advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), entrepreneurs, workers, students, farmers, artists, and others are plugging in to leverage new tools and more electricity than ever. Nowhere is this clearer than in India — the fastest-growing economy in the world — where demand for electricity is soaring: Again this year, electricity consumption is expected to increase by 8%.
India is making a big bet to meet this demand. After achieving universal electricity access, the government is pursuing a goal of deploying 500 GW of renewable energy in the years ahead. As important as the goal itself, India is showing the world how to act with urgency and scale. To ensure its people have access to renewable electricity, India has become a leader in public, private, and philanthropic partnerships that are advancing a worldwide energy revolution.
Since India became independent in 1947, and particularly over the last 30 years, it has proven how to solve big development challenges and improve life for people. Today, India’s historic gains in living standards, health and education have improved considerably all 12 multidimensional poverty indicators tracked by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Centre. Over just the past decade, the number of Indians lacking proper nutrition has been cut in half from 20% to 12%, access to clean drinking water has improved from 95% to nearly 98%, and more children are attending and staying in school longer.
One reason for that progress is India’s commitment to electrification. In today’s world, nothing determines the quality of a person’s life more than access to electricity. Studies have made clear that access to electricity is one of the most effective tools against multidimensional poverty. And as digital tools like AI, machine learning, and others transform industry, education, transportation, and many other sectors, sufficient electricity will determine the capacity of individuals, communities, and countries to compete.
This opportunity is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a big bet on electrification. As part of that historic commitment, the nation has stayed relentlessly focused on data. In 2018, India met its ambition to connect all villages to power. Three years later, the government committed to scaling the renewable electricity needed to power prosperity for all. To meet those targets, India has also developed new technologies that work in different contexts — from mini-grids to solar irrigation systems, rooftop solar to electric buses.
And most consequentially, India has developed novel partnerships with businesses, philanthropies, and others to develop and scale these solutions. Ensuring the energy transition works for everyone is too big, costly, and complicated an undertaking for any one institution. Governments can set goals, rewrite regulations, provide subsidies, and more. Businesses can invest, innovate, and expand. Philanthropies can fund early projects — proving what works and scaling from there. These different actors often collaborate: For example, Tata Power has been collaborating with philanthropic and other partners to build solar mini-grids in 10,000 villages.
As a result of India’s ambitious, innovative electrification effort, the country has thus far added 24.2 GW of renewable energy, surpassing 200 GW in total capacity in 2023-2024. The energy revolution is already benefiting Indians around the country, creating over one million jobs. Beyond access and jobs, renewable power is enhancing education, health access, and even increased income opportunities.
The Rockefeller Foundation, of which I have been president since 2017, is proud to have played a small part in India’s electrification. The Foundation, which is older and independent from other charitable endeavours started by the Rockefeller family, was established by John D. Rockefeller Sr. in 1913 and began work in India not long after. Historically, we have made grants to health, agriculture, and other initiatives.
Today, most of the Foundation’s work in India is in energy through the independent Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), of which we are one of many partners. In India, GEAPP has already provided one million people and businesses with new connections and 600,000 jobs and livelihoods — and is now helping build out battery energy storage to ensure India’s grid can handle 500 GW of renewable electricity.
Building on progress at home, India’s energy revolution is going global. At COP29 in Baku, India pushed for more funding from wealthier countries to invest in the green energy transition and other initiatives in emerging and developing countries. India’s Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) initiative empowers participants from developing countries to implement renewable solutions. The International Solar Alliance (ISA), which India launched with France, is mobilising $1 trillion in solar investments by 2030 in 121 member countries. And GEAPP, which began in India, is now at work in dozens of countries in Africa and elsewhere.
There is still much work to do until all of India’s most ambitious electrification goals are met but thus far India’s big bet is working for its own people and for the rest of the world. The commitment to electrification sparked an endeavour that has spanned villages, then states and territories, and now countries and even continents. It has also proven what’s possible: That the 21st century’s toughest challenges are solvable when governments, businesses, philanthropies, and others work together.
Rajiv J Shah is the president of The Rockefeller Foundation.The views expressed are personal
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