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The sustainability transition of electricity sectors is a matter of competition between multiple emerging renewable systems and dominant, established conventional systems. These transitions are multi-dimensional and are featured with non-linear and causal interactions between social, technical, economic and political components. Understanding the dynamic of transitions, i.e. how transitions unfold, can inform effective policy interventions. This paper aims to present a narrative-modelling approach to improve the understanding and description of transition dynamics in electricity sectors. The central ideas of the paper are: (1) the use of qualitative transition narratives helps to capture the co-evolving nature of society and technology which are simplified in modelling approaches; (2) narratives, with concepts from the sustainability transitions field, also guide the development of a model structure; and (3) computational models, in return, reproduce the complexity of transition dynamics, i.e. feedback loops, non-linearity, and time delays—the features which are impracticable to analyse with transition narratives alone. We use the historical transition of India's electricity sector to demonstrate the implementation of our proposed approach. First, an overview of the transition narratives is presented and the model structure, developed based on the narratives, is explained. Then, it is argued how the coupling of the narratives and model improves our understating of the positive impacts as well as the side-effects of stable feed-in tariffs and accelerated depreciation on the penetration levels of wind and solar electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (IPB) are the largest South Asian countries in terms of land area, gross domestic product (GDP), and population. The growth in these countries is impacted by inadequate renewable energy policy and implementation over the years, resulting in slow progress towards human development and economic sustainability. These developing countries are blessed with huge potential for renewable energy resources; however, they still heavily rely on fossil fuels (93%). IPB is a major contributor to the total energy consumption of the world and its most energy-intensive building sector (India 47%, Pakistan 55% and Bangladesh 55%) displays inadequate energy performance. This paper comprehensively reviews the energy mix and consumption in IPB with special emphasis on current policies and its impact on economic and human development. The main performance indicators have been critically analyzed for the period 1970–2017. The strength of this paper is a broad overview on energy and development of energy integration in major South Asian countries. Furthermore, it presents a broad deepening on the main sector of energy consumption, i.e., the building sector. The paper also particularly analyzes the existing buildings energy efficiency codes and policies, with specific long-term recommendations to improve average energy consumption per person. The study also examines the technical and regulatory barriers and recommends specific measures to adapt renewable technologies, with special attention to policies affecting energy consumption. The analysis and results are general and can be applied to other developing countries of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following India's efforts to mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases, there has been a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, in the energy portfolio. The renewable energy sector is widely acknowledged as a fertile ground for employment creation, as it is labour-intensive. Against this backdrop, the main objective of this paper is to provide an empirical explanation of how the growth of renewable energy sources, particularly solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, affects employment creation in India. The findings reveal that, despite a substantial investment in India's solar PV technology, the number of jobs created by the sector declined marginally from 164000 in 2017–114000 in 2018. India's estimated employment elasticity is just 0.004, implying that the level of employment does not show a significant positive response to changes in installed capacity. Almost 60 per cent of the global solar PV workforce is in China, which has become the leading country both in terms of installed capacity of global solar PV technology and manufacturing of solar PV cells and modules. The wide disparity in solar PV employment between India and China is explained by the former's excessive dependence on China for solar PV cells. Alongside climate conservation, India should, therefore, place more emphasis on revitalising the domestic solar manufacturing industry to bring about efficient use of the nation's untapped resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fast growth of population in India, consumption of energy is growing at a rapid rate. Today's energy consumption and its utilization at an optimum level is a big challenge in the nation. There are various factors like a demand to mitigate global energy, availability, accessibility, cost, environmental change and storage facility of energy which are important in modern days. Majority of the population is shifting towards the city in comparison to a rural area (town, village and kasbah). According to this fact, the consumption of energy is increasing in cities. The small- and large-scale industries are located nearby the city, because of the easy availability of raw materials, better transportation services and other resources. So, the requirement of energy in a continuous manner is the prime need in these areas. In rural areas, people are using low-grade energy, and thereby there is not so much burden of energy required. It is also observed that there is a maximum loss of electricity due to transmission in India. Oil, gas and electricity are major resources to supply the energy need of the countrymen. However, the fuel situation of the nation with the shortage of fossil fuels creates pressure to drive the nuclear investment for electricity and nearly 25% contribution by 2050. The nation's dependency on oil and gas is a critical issue, so the country is looking forward to various renewable energy resources. To accomplish this target, various government organizations are investing in solar and wind energy-related projects along with remote location pilot projects. The role of policymakers in this direction is to develop future strategies to decrease the gap between demand and supply of electricity for the growth of sustainable development. In the present work, energy production from various resources, supply, new policy implementation and import of energy is discussed in India. The study concludes that coal and petroleum product import is continuously increasing in the country for power generation and increasing the level of greenhouse gases. So, the Indian government is investing in power generation projects based on renewable energies in the country. 'Solar Mission' to achieve a goal of 20 000 MW solar electricity and 60 GW wind power generation by 2022 is already running in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current scenario of heavy power crisis in India particularly in rural areas and small towns requires urgent solution. There is a need to look for innovative and sustainable ways for promoting equitable development in India. The centralized energy planning model currently used ignores energy needs of the rural areas and poor and has also led to environmental degradation, whereas decentralized energy planning model is in the interest of efficient utilization of resources. Energy planning at the village level is the bottom limit of the application of decentralized planning principle. The individual villages are the smallest social units where the energy consumption occurs. Renewable energy is energy derived from sources that are being replaced by nature, such as water, wind, solar, or biomass. Renewable sources are essentially non-polluting, if applied correctly. This article presents a review of the important decentralized renewable energy options. Also, this article discusses about current power scenario in India particularly in rural sector. Taking into consideration the limitations of conventional power policy and benefits decentralized power potential in India, this article presents the need to setup independent rural power producers (IRPPs) as an instrument to promote sustainable and socially equitable rural power sector development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]