GREEN ENERGY STARTUPS: TRANSLATING INDIA'S GOALS OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Prior to becoming the Director of EESL, Venkatesh was the National Programme Manager for Street Light National Programme (SLNP) and was also the first project manager of EESL’s flagship schemes Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA).

- Venkatesh Dwivedi

Over the past few years, the energy discourse has witnessed the paradigm shift from ‘energy conservation’ to ‘energy efficiency’. The latter has been labelled as the most effective instrument to achieve India’s energy goals of reduction of emissions, economic energy intensity and energy sustainability. Bolstered by the result of four decades of integrated efforts of policy support and implementation by domestic and international stakeholders, India’s energy efficiency programs have saved approximately 13 GW of annual generation capacity. In monetary terms, this entails savings of over $ 10 billion in the form of avoided capacity generation and reduced energy bills. Numerouspolicy initiatives by the government such as the Energy Conservation, the Energy Conservation Building Code and many more have played a crucial role in laying the framework for energy efficiency.

Green energy startups are an integral component of India’s energy efficiency story. These startups have played a crucial role in bridging the gap between an idea and prototype. They are centerpieces of innovation paving way to problem-solving, not limited to the areas of forecasting, transmission, and procurement, enabling India to achieve the goal of energy efficiency. Another important aspect is the technological enhancement they bring to the country cannot be ignored. These startups are leveraging emerging technologies which generally lie at the highest end of the value addition chain.