India must consider off-grid options to expand energy access: IEA
Decentralising power generation using renewables is the most effective way to increase access to electricity in India, according to the International Energy Agency. A report by the intergovernmental organisation found that while extension of the country's national power grid would provide the most cost-effective solution for increasing access in urban areas, decentralised technology such as solar PV provides the most efficient solution for rural areas. The agency found India has hugely increased access to electricity to 82% of the population from 43% in 2000, and that maintaining this pace will result in universal coverage by the early 2020s.
India stands out as “one of the largest electrification success stories in history,” accounting for two or every five people newly electrified since 2000, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.

However, the report painted a future quite different from the centralized grid focus of the current Indian government, saying that decentralized systems, led by solar PV in off-grid and mini-grid systems, “will be the least-cost solution for three-quarters of the additional connections needed” to achieve full energy access before 2030.

“Over the period to 2030, new connections to the grid bring electricity to over half of those that gain access, and offer the most cost-effective means of access in urban areas, but decentralized systems are the most cost-effective solutions for over 70% of those who gain access in rural areas," read the report.

"By 2030, renewable energy sources power over 60% of new access, and off-grid and mini-grid systems provide the means for almost half of new access, underpinned by new business models using digital and mobile technologies,” according to IEA.

Without doubt, India has made enormous strides. The report said India has reached 82 percent of the population, up from 43 percent in 2000. The pace of has quickened as well, with the number of people gaining access rising from 28 million per year between 2000 and 2012 to 41 million people per year in 2016.

“If this pace is maintained, India will achieve universal access in the early 2020s,” the report said, “with renewables accounting for about 60% of those who gain access."

Over 99 percent of people who have gained access in India since 2000 have done so as a result of grid extension, it added. Coal fueled about 75 percent of the new electricity access since 2000, with renewable sources accounting for around 20 percent. Globally, the number of people without access to electricity fell to below 1.1 billion people for the first time in 2016, with nearly 1.2 billion people having gained access since 2000, 500 million of which were in India, the report said.

This piece was originally published at Powering Rural India on Medium and was reprinted with permission from Power For All.