Strategies I: clean energy for villages, cities and remote areas

Detail

1. Why India must switch its energy sources

• Thermal power plants burn coal to make electricity. They cause two kinds of harm:
• They release carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that warms the planet.

• They leave behind fly ash, the fine powder left after coal burns. Fly ash dumped near plants pollutes water bodies and land.

• Large hydroelectric projects use big dams, which also cause harm:

• The reservoir floods forests, and the people living there are displaced.

• The dam changes the natural flow of the river, which harms fish, silt movement and farmers downstream.

• Non-conventional sources of energy are sources that are renewable, spread out and produce little pollution. Examples are wind, the sun and small streams. They reduce the harms above.

• NCERT error: the Class 11 chapter calls wind and solar "conventional" sources. In the exam, treat them as non-conventional. Conventional means coal, oil, gas and large hydro.

• Where India stands now:

• India reached 50% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources in June 2025. This was five years ahead of its 2030 target (its NDC pledge under the Paris Agreement) [3].
• The target is 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 [3].
• On 31 March 2026, non-fossil capacity was 283.46 GW. This was 274.68 GW renewable energy (RE) plus 8.78 GW nuclear [2].
• The RE part was solar 150.26 GW, wind 56.09 GW, large hydro 51.41 GW, bio-energy 11.75 GW and small hydro 5.17 GW [2].
• India ranks third in the world in installed RE capacity (2026) [2].

2. Wind power

• Wind power means using wind turbines, placed in areas with strong and steady wind, to turn the kinetic energy of moving air into electricity.
• Cost:
• The initial (capital) cost is high, because turbines, towers and grid links are expensive.
• Running costs are low, because wind is free and needs no fuel.
• Pollution is minimal, with no smoke and no ash.

• NCERT says the long-run benefits "absorb" (recover) the high starting cost.

• Drawbacks:

• Wind farms need large areas of land.
• The blades make noise.
• Birds and bats die when they hit the blades.

• Wind is intermittent (it does not blow all the time), so the grid needs back-up power or storage.

• Data:

• Installed wind capacity was 56.09 GW (31 March 2026) [2].
• India added 6.05 GW in FY 2025-26. This was its highest-ever wind addition in a year and 46% more than in FY 2024-25 [3].

3. Solar photovoltaic (PV) power

• Solar PV means using photovoltaic cells (thin semiconductor layers, usually silicon) to turn sunlight directly into electricity.
• Advantages:
• It is pollution-free while running.
• It has no moving parts, so maintenance is low.
• It is ideal for remote areas, such as hill villages, islands, deserts and border posts. In these places, building grid lines is impossible or too costly.

• Panels can sit on rooftops, so no new land is needed.

• Limits:

• It produces no power at night and less on cloudy days, so it needs batteries or back-up.

• Solar parks need land.

• Growth:

• Solar capacity rose from 2.8 GW (2014) to 150.26 GW (31 March 2026) [2][3].
• Solar makes up about 48% of India's RE capacity (2026) [3].

International Solar Alliance (ISA)

• India leads it. The ISA was launched by India and France at COP21, Paris, on 30 November 2015.
• Its Framework Agreement came into force in December 2017. This made the ISA a treaty-based intergovernmental organisation.
• Its headquarters is in Gurugram (Haryana). It is the first international intergovernmental body with its headquarters in India.
• Its vision is "One Sun One World One Grid" (OSOWOG), an idea to link solar grids across countries so that solar power produced in one time zone can be used in another.

4. Mini-hydel plants (small hydro)

• Mini-hydel plants use small turbines placed on perennial mountain streams (streams that flow all year). The falling water turns the turbines and makes electricity.
• Advantages:
• There is no change in land use, because no big dam and no large reservoir are needed.
• They are environment-friendly, and forests and villages stay where they are.
• They meet local demand, for example in hill villages.
• Because the power is used near where it is made, no large transmission lines are needed.

• This means no transmission loss. Transmission loss is the electricity lost as heat when power travels long distances through wires.

• Definition: MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) counts hydro projects up to 25 MW as small hydro.

• Anything above 25 MW is "large hydro". Since 2019, large hydro has also been counted as renewable energy.

• Data: small hydro capacity was 5.17 GW (31 March 2026) [2].

• A later MNRE update puts it at 5.10 GW commissioned, with another 0.44 GW under implementation (2026) [3].

Worked example: why local use matters

• Suppose a hill town needs 1,000 units of power.
• If the power comes from a distant plant and 15% is lost in the wires, that plant must produce about 1,000 ÷ 0.85 ≈ 1,176 units.
• A mini-hydel plant next to the town needs to produce only about 1,000 units.
• That saves about 176 units, which is fuel and money saved.

5. Government schemes for clean power

PM-KUSUM (2019)

• The full name is Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan. It is an MNRE scheme that gives farmers solar power. Its aims:
• De-dieselise farming, which means replacing diesel pumps with solar ones.
• Give farmers water and energy security.

• Raise farmers' income [13].

• Three components [13]:

• Component A: 10,000 MW of small solar power plants, each up to 2 MW, on farmers' land.
• Component B: 20 lakh standalone solar agricultural pumps, meaning pumps not connected to the grid.

• Component C: solarisation of 15 lakh existing grid-connected pumps. Farmers can sell the extra power to the DISCOM (the electricity distribution company).

• Targets:

• 34.8 GW of solar capacity, with central financial support of ₹34,422 crore [13].

• The scheme was extended to 31 March 2026 [13].

• Progress (October 2025) [13][14]:

• More than 9 lakh standalone pumps were installed under Component B.
• 10,535 individual grid-connected pumps were solarised under Component C.

• 9,74,458 pumps were covered by Feeder-Level Solarisation, where the whole agricultural feeder line is solarised instead of each pump.

• CFA rule: CFA (Central Financial Assistance, the Centre's share of the cost) covers pumps up to 15 HP (raised from 7.5 HP) in these cases [13]:

• individual farmers in the North-East, hilly states/UTs and island UTs;
• each farmer in cluster or community irrigation projects in high water-table areas in all states/UTs.

PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (February 2024)

• Aim: put rooftop solar on 1 crore households, giving them up to 300 free units of electricity a month. The Cabinet approved it in February 2024, with an outlay of ₹75,021 crore [5].
• Subsidy (CFA) [5]:
• ₹30,000 per kW for the first 2 kW.
• ₹18,000 per kW for the third kW.

• The maximum is ₹78,000 for systems of 3 kW and above.

• Progress:

• 10.09 lakh installations by 10 March 2025 [6].
• 26,19,879 rooftop systems by 19 March 2026, with ₹17,967.53 crore of CFA disbursed [4].
• The target of 1 crore by March 2027 remains [6].

• (Scaffold note "verify progress": answered above.)

• Worked example: subsidy

• A household installs a 3 kW system.
• CFA = (2 × ₹30,000) + (1 × ₹18,000) = ₹78,000, which is the maximum.

• A 3 kW rooftop system produces about 300-360 units a month in Indian sunshine, which is roughly the "300 free units".

• Worked example: average support

• ₹17,967.53 crore ÷ 26.2 lakh installations ≈ ₹68,600 per installation.
• This is a rough figure, because the dates of payments and installations do not match exactly.

6. Household fuels: the rural cooking problem

• Traditional fuels are firewood, dung cakes (dried cattle dung) and crop waste (biomass). Using them causes four problems:
• Deforestation: cutting trees for firewood reduces green cover.
• Wasted fertiliser: cattle dung that could go back into the soil as manure is burnt instead.
• Indoor air pollution: smoke in closed kitchens harms mainly women and children and causes lung and eye diseases.
• Energy waste: open chulhas (traditional mud stoves) use fuel very inefficiently.

7. LPG as a clean fuel

• LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) is a clean cooking fuel. The government subsidises it. Using it:
• cuts household smoke;
• reduces energy waste;

• saves women's time spent collecting firewood.

• PM Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY, May 2016):

• It gives deposit-free LPG connections to adult women of poor households [7].
• The connection is in the woman's name, which also supports women's empowerment [7].
• There were 10.33 crore PMUY connections as on 1 March 2025 [7].
• The government approved 25 lakh more connections for FY 2025-26 [8].

• The Cabinet continued the targeted LPG subsidy for PMUY users in 2025-26 at ₹12,000 crore [9].

• PAHAL (2015): PAHAL means Pratyaksh Hanstantrit Labh. Under it, the LPG subsidy is paid straight into the consumer's bank account by DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer).

• The customer buys the cylinder at market price, and the subsidy reaches the bank account.

• This stops leakage, meaning subsidised cylinders being diverted to fake or commercial users.

• Weak spot: low refill usage.

• Many poor households take the connection but do not refill often.
• The refill price is high compared with their income.
• Firewood is free.
• So they return to the chulha, which is called "fuel stacking" (using LPG and firewood side by side).

8. Biogas (gobar gas)

• Biogas is made by anaerobic digestion, meaning cattle dung (and other organic waste) breaks down without air inside a closed tank.
• The gas produced is methane-rich, about 55-65% methane.

• It is used for cooking and lighting.

• Two outputs from one input:

• The gas is a clean fuel that burns without smoke.

• The leftover slurry is a very good organic fertiliser and soil conditioner (it improves soil structure). Burning dung cakes throws this value away.

• NCERT: the government gave biogas plants to households through easy loans and subsidy.

• Scaling up to Compressed Biogas (CBG):
• CBG is biogas that has been purified (CO2 and H2S removed) and compressed. It is almost the same as CNG and can run vehicles.
• SATAT (2018): the full name is Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation, and the Ministry of Petroleum launched it.
  • Public-sector oil marketing companies invite entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants.
  • The companies promise to buy the CBG as a green transport fuel [10].
• GOBARdhan (2018): the full name is Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan, and it started under Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen.
  • It turns cattle dung and organic waste into biogas, CBG and manure.
  • 1,908 CBG/Bio-CNG plants were registered on the GOBARdhan Unified Registration Portal as on 6 August 2026 [12].
• In 2026, the Union Cabinet approved GOBARdhan as India's National Unified Scheme for Compressed Biogas, with an outlay of ₹23,731 crore [11]. Its aims:
  • Raise domestic CBG output nearly ten-fold [11].
  • Use assured demand, stable prices, capital help, pipeline infrastructure, credit support and new technology [11].
  • Build a circular bioeconomy, where waste becomes a resource and nothing is thrown away [11].

9. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in cities

• CNG is natural gas (mostly methane) stored at high pressure. It burns much cleaner than diesel or petrol, with far less particulate matter and sulphur dioxide.
• M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (1998):
• The Supreme Court ordered all public transport in Delhi (buses, autos, taxis) to switch to CNG.

• Delhi completed the switch in the early 2000s (about 2002-03).

• NCERT: Delhi's air "has become cleaner" since then, and many other cities adopted CNG.

• Policy link: the government aims to raise the share of natural gas in India's energy mix to 15% by 2030 [15].

10. Road space rationing and other urban steps

• Road space rationing means limiting which vehicles may use roads on given days to cut traffic and pollution.
• Delhi's odd-even scheme was first tried in January 2016.

• Cars with odd registration numbers ran on odd dates and cars with even numbers on even dates.

• Solar street lighting: Delhi (and other cities) use solar-powered street lights, which cut demand on the grid.

11. Energy poverty

• Energy poverty means a household lacks affordable, reliable electricity and clean cooking fuel.
• SDG 7 (2015-2030) aims to "ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all".

• This includes universal electricity, clean cooking, a larger share of renewables and better energy efficiency.

• India's responses:

• Saubhagya (2017): the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, which connected un-electrified households to electricity.
• PMUY: clean cooking fuel for poor households (see section 7).
• PM Surya Ghar: affordable electricity through rooftop solar (see section 5).

• PM-KUSUM: clean energy for farming (see section 5).

• Clean cooking gap: NFHS-5 (2019-21) found that about 59% of households used clean cooking fuel. This means about 4 in 10 still used solid fuels.

• This figure was not checked against a source in this note, so verify it before quoting.

Prelims Hooks

• Small hydro under MNRE means projects up to 25 MW. Mini-hydel plants need no change in land use and have no transmission loss.
• ISA: launched by India and France at COP21, Paris (30 November 2015). The Framework Agreement came into force in December 2017. HQ is in Gurugram. The vision is One Sun One World One Grid.
• CNG in Delhi: ordered by the Supreme Court in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (1998). It was a court order, not an Act of Parliament.
• PAHAL (2015) = the LPG subsidy paid by DBT. PMUY (May 2016) = deposit-free LPG connections in the names of adult women of poor households. There were 10.33 crore connections (1 March 2025) [7].
• SATAT (2018) is a Ministry of Petroleum initiative for Compressed Bio-Gas as a transport fuel. Oil marketing companies buy the CBG [10]. Do not confuse it with GOBARdhan, which started under Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen.
• PM-KUSUM components: A = small solar plants up to 2 MW. B = standalone solar pumps. C = solarising grid-connected pumps [13].
• PM Surya Ghar (February 2024): 1 crore households and up to 300 free units a month. The maximum CFA is ₹78,000 [5]. There were 26.2 lakh installations (March 2026) [4].
• The 50% non-fossil capacity target was met in June 2025, five years ahead of the 2030 NDC goal [3].
• Biogas: made by anaerobic digestion, giving methane-rich gas plus slurry that is used as organic manure.
• Trap: NCERT calls wind and solar "conventional". The correct answer is non-conventional.

Mains Points

• Decentralised energy for inclusive growth:
• Rooftop solar, mini-hydel, solar pumps and biogas make power where it is used. This cuts transmission losses and reaches remote villages where the grid cannot go.
• Farmers and households become "prosumers" (people who both produce and consume power), which raises rural incomes.

• Links: PM-KUSUM, PM Surya Ghar, SDG 7.

• Access vs. use:

• Ujjwala gave over 10 crore LPG connections [7], but low refill rates and fuel stacking remain.

• Clean-cooking policy must move from counting connections to making refills affordable, through targeted subsidy [9], smaller cylinders and local biogas or CBG.

• Waste to wealth and the circular economy:

• GOBARdhan and SATAT turn cattle dung and farm waste into fuel and manure [11][10].
• This cuts stubble burning, methane from dumped waste and fertiliser imports at the same time.

• The trade-off is plant viability, which needs assured purchase prices and supply chains for raw material.

• Clean energy trade-offs:

• Wind and solar are intermittent, which creates a need for storage and grid balancing.
• Solar parks and wind farms need land.
• Large hydro causes displacement.
• A balanced mix (RE plus storage plus small hydro plus gas as a bridge fuel [15]) supports the 500 GW by 2030 target [3] and India's Panchamrit/NDC commitments. It also balances intergenerational equity (the Brundtland idea of meeting today's needs without harming future generations' ability to meet theirs).