Energy technologies

Story hook

In December 2015, on a cold afternoon at the Paris climate summit, Narendra Modi stood beside François Hollande to announce a coalition no one outside South Asia took seriously: the International Solar Alliance. The target was 1 trillion dollars of investment in solar by 2030 and 1,000 GW of solar capacity globally. India's own installed solar capacity at that moment was 5 GW — about the same as a single mid-sized coal plant.

Ten years later, India has crossed 100 GW of solar capacity. The ISA has 120 member states. The cost of utility-scale solar in India is ₹2.00 / kWh — the cheapest electricity in the world. And the country is now pursuing a 5-million-tonne green hydrogen target by 2030, building the first commercial small modular reactor plans, and quietly running the SST-1 tokamak at the Institute for Plasma Research in Gandhinagar — India's contribution to the global pursuit of fusion energy.

This is the story of how an oil-importing country with 1.4 billion mouths to feed decided that decarbonisation could be a strategy, not a sacrifice.

Why this matters for UPSC

Energy and renewables are the second-most-asked S&T-and-economy crossover topic after space technology — Prelims questions on ISA, NSM, JNNSM, FAME, NGHM appear every year; Mains questions link energy to climate negotiations, energy security, and economic transformation. The Interview probes on energy transition, hydrogen, nuclear, and net-zero are mandatory for all candidates, especially IES/IFS/IRS aspirants.