What explains India's embrace of solar? State-led energy transition in a developmental polity

Abstract

In late 2014, India announced plans to increase the deployment of solar technology from 20 GW to 100 GW by 2022 and followed this up by putting in place a set of robust policies to achieve this target. What explains India's strong push to adopt solar electricity? Conventional wisdom mostly credits techno-economic factors, such as falling module prices and competitive bidding to explain this embrace. Though these factors undoubtedly aided the scale-up, solar power was substantially more expensive than domestic coal in the 2014–17 period under study. We conducted 23 elite interviews with former and current Indian government officials, think-tank researchers, consultants, private sector executives, Indian media, and two U.S. officials. We evaluated nine possible drivers behind the Indian government's policy push on solar going beyond the techno-economic emphasis on declining panel prices. Based on the interviews and a review of other observable implications of the various drivers, four chiefly political drivers clearly stood out: domestic politics, global pressure and partnerships, attracting investment, and energy sovereignty. Prime Minister Modi embraced solar to bolster his domestic image as a modernizing reformer and to boost India's reputation internationally. Solar also aimed to leverage investment and dampen India's dependence on energy imports.