India is rapidly emerging as a clean energy powerhouse, with electric three-wheeler vehicles dominating its cities and rural areas alike. While China is widely recognized as the clean energy superpower, India's electrification pathway may end up being even faster, according to a new report from climate think tank Ember. This is particularly significant given that India is the planet's third-biggest climate polluter, and what happens here affects everyone.
India's clean energy transition is being driven mainly by one thing: cost. In 2004, when China used a similar amount of energy per person as India does now, coal was about ten times cheaper than solar. Today, solar energy plus the cost to store it is about half as much as new coal plants, according to Ember. Costs of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries have all plummeted. Battery prices alone dropped 40% in 2024, said Kingsmill Bond, energy strategist for Ember and a report author. These kinds of steep reductions simply aren’t possible with fossil fuels, he added.
Clean energy can also help give India something many countries are seeking: energy independence. India imports close to 90% of its oil and half its gas, leaving it exposed to price shocks and geopolitical turmoil, said Thijs Van de Graaf, an associate professor of international politics at Ghent University. “Renewables help reduce this vulnerability,” he said.
However, India's clean energy rollout still relies on China, which dominates supply chains for critical minerals and electrotech. India does have plans to reduce its dependence. Over the last decade, solar module production has surged 12-fold, Ember’s report noted. The government has also launched a “national critical mineral mission” to up production, said Debajit Palit from the Centre for Climate Change & Energy Transition at the Chintan Research Foundation, an independent think tank.
This offers a big potential advantage. The US is becoming an increasingly unreliable trade partner, and China’s supply-chain monopolies are striking fear into many countries. There’s a growing demand for alternative trading partners, Ember’s report noted. A huge trade deal signed between India and the European Union last month has been interpreted as a sign of this shift.
Exactly how quickly — and how messily — India’s clean energy revolution might play out isn’t yet clear. But the overall takeaway is that India is charting a faster path to clean energy than that taken by China, Bond said: It’s generating more solar, burning far less fossil fuel and electrifying transportation at a quicker rate. What India is doing could also be mirrored in other emerging economies, which may be able to harness increasingly cheap wind and solar at an even faster rate to power their economic development, Bond said.
The kicker is President Donald Trump — who outspokenly detests clean energy and promotes fossil fuels — may be helping drive this revolution. His transactional, “go-it-alone” approach only pushes energy import-dependent countries toward clean energy, Van de Graaf said. “The result is a growing divergence: a US prioritizing fossil fuel dominance, and emerging economies positioning themselves for an electrified energy future.”
