India’s power system is quietly being rewired by physics and policy. In the first half of 2025, solar and wind output hit all-time highs, expanding fast enough to meet incremental demand and shave an estimated 24 million tonnes off power-sector emissions versus a year earlier. That is not a slogan; it is arithmetic from Ember’s mid-year electricity review, echoed by India’s own investment and capacity tallies. In a grid long dominated by coal, renewables are beginning to carry the growth load.
Record renewable output in H1-2025: Solar and wind growth met demand growth and avoided ~24 Mt CO₂ vs H1-2024.
Biggest half-year build ever: ~24.8 GW added in Apr–Sep 2025 (≈21.7 GW solar; 3.1 GW wind); solar now ~127 GW, wind ~53 GW.
From auctions to kilowatt-hours: Solar’s share ~9.2% and wind ~5.1% of generation in H1-2025—and rising.
Policy flywheel: SECI’s hybrid & RTC tenders + state net-metering reforms are cutting friction and curtailment.
Chips meet watts: ISM’s SiC and packaging push under “Mission 2.0” strengthens the RE supply chain.
The shift rests on three mutually reinforcing choices. First, scale: developers and the state have learnt to build big, quickly. MNRE’s latest progress card shows ~21.7 GW of new solar and ~3.1 GW of wind added in April–September 2025—India’s strongest half-year on record—lifting cumulative solar capacity to ~127 GW and wind to ~53 GW by end-September. Capacity is finally arriving in the volumes India’s demand warrants, and in the geographies (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu) where resource and transmission align.
Second, policy choreography: tendering, tariff discovery and evacuation planning have tightened. SECI’s pipeline of hybrid, storage-linked and round-the-clock contracts has created bankable offtake; CEA’s renewable-generation tracking and state-level reforms are reducing friction; and regulators are widening the aperture for “behind-the-meter” growth with net-metering innovations. The result shows up not only in megawatts but in megawatt-hours: in H1-2025, solar supplied ~9.2% and wind ~5.1% of total generation—shares that were unthinkable a decade ago.
Third, industrial strategy: a domestic supply chain is being coaxed into existence. Production-linked incentives for modules, cells and wafers are complementing the India Semiconductor Mission’s push into power electronics—chips and packaging that matter for inverters, EV drivetrains and grid-edge devices. September releases under ISM confirm that “Mission 2.0” will lean into silicon-carbide and packaging—precisely the components that make renewable systems sturdier and more efficient. If chips are the new oil, power semiconductors are the lubricants of the clean-energy machine.What makes this moment investable is the system-level effect. Record renewable generation has not merely cut emissions; it has helped temper peak-season stress, diversified fuel risk, and improved the economics of electrification—from data centres to two-wheelers. As transmission plans for hydro and pumped storage in the Northeast advance, variability can be balanced more cheaply, allowing solar-and-wind to do even more heavy lifting. The macro pay-off is lower import dependence and a flatter merit order; the micro pay-off is cheaper, cleaner electrons for factories and households.
There are caveats. Integration still lags ambition in pockets; land and curtailment disputes flare; and distribution finances demand continual triage. Yet the direction of travel looks durable: auctions are oversubscribed, delivery timelines are tightening, and the cost curves—modules, storage, power electronics—still slope down. If the state keeps sequencing reforms (land, grid, DISCOM contracts) while recycling public capital into evacuation and storage, India can turn this mid-year record into a new normal. That would anchor not only a cleaner grid but a broader manufacturing story: components designed and made in India powering not just Indian rooftops and deserts, but the Global South’s growth too.