As India grappled with another summer of soaring electricity demand, the country’s power grid quietly reached a milestone. For the first time, solar and wind together generated more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, supplying nearly half of the country’s power at one point.

According to Grid Controller of India Ltd. (GRID-INDIA), utility-scale solar and wind generation reached 103.7 GW at 12.05 pm on July 13, the highest recorded so far. A few minutes later, the two sources supplied 42.79% of the electricity flowing through the national grid. The following day, generation crossed the 100 GW mark again, showing that the achievement was not a one-off event.

The record comes at a time when rainfall has been lower than usual. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the southwest monsoon is expected to bring about 90% of the country’s normal rainfall this year. With lower inflows into reservoirs, hydropower generation can come under pressure, making solar and wind even more important in meeting electricity demand.

The achievement signals a broader shift. Renewable energy is no longer just expanding on paper through new projects—it is increasingly helping power homes, businesses and industries during periods of high demand.

Solar and Wind Energy: India’s Growing Demand for Electricity

India’s appetite for electricity continues to grow.

According to Power Minister Manohar Lal, the country’s peak electricity demand has already reached about 271 GW this year. The government expects it to touch around 300 GW by 2027, driven by rising use of air conditioners, electric vehicles, data centres and industrial activity.

Meeting that demand has traditionally meant relying on coal-fired power plants. This year, however, solar and wind energy has played a larger role. According to GRID-INDIA, solar generation reached a record 81 GW during the April heatwave, helping ease pressure on conventional power plants during the middle of the day.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects India to remain one of the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy markets through the rest of the decade. But it also warns that investment in electricity grids and storage must grow alongside renewable energy.

The Challenge Begins After Sunset

The July record was achieved around noon, when solar panels generate their highest output. Electricity demand, however, often remains high long after sunset.

That is why many experts say the next phase of India’s clean energy transition will depend less on building more solar parks and more on storing the electricity they generate.

“The achievement shows the national grid can absorb much larger volumes of renewable electricity than before. The next priority is expanding energy storage so surplus solar power generated during the day can be supplied after sunset,” said Shreya Jai, Energy Lead at Climate Trends.

Solar Energy and Storage Challenges

Research points in the same direction. A recent study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the India Energy and Climate Center and partner institutions found that expanding battery storage and making the grid more flexible would allow India to integrate much larger shares of solar and wind while maintaining a reliable electricity supply.

Disha Aggarwal, Fellow at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), said the milestone shows renewable energy is becoming a larger part of the country’s actual electricity supply, rather than just its installed capacity. She said the next priority should be scaling up energy storage, strengthening reserve capacity and creating electricity markets that can better support evening demand.

Storing renewable energy, however, remains one of India’s biggest challenges. Battery systems are still expensive, while pumped hydro projects require suitable terrain, long construction periods and multiple regulatory clearances. Expanding transmission networks to carry renewable power from generation centres to demand hubs is another hurdle.

Crossing the 100 GW mark shows that India can generate renewable electricity at an unprecedented scale. The bigger challenge now is ensuring that clean power generated during the day can be stored and delivered when homes, hospitals and industries need it most.

For decades, tritium has remained the one radioactive contaminant that nuclear engineers could not efficiently remove from wastewater. Unlike other radioactive elements, tritium becomes part of the water molecule itself, making it nearly impossible to separate using conventional treatment methods. Instead, facilities have relied on energy-intensive distillation or, in some cases, the controlled dilution and release of treated water that still contains tritium within regulatory safety limits.

Now, researchers in China report a possible solution. In a study published in Environmental Science & Technology, they developed a metal-organic framework (MOF)-coated material that significantly improves tritium separation during distillation. This study builds on work that won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year. If the technology performs similarly outside the laboratory, it could make treating radioactive wastewater far more efficient.

The problem Hidden Inside a Water Molecule

Most radioactive contaminants can be removed using filters or chemical treatment. Tritium is different because it replaces one of the hydrogen atoms in the water molecule itself. That means the contaminated water looks and behaves almost exactly like clean water.

For decades, the only practical way to separate the two has been distillation. Since tritiated water boils at a slightly different temperature, the process eventually works. But the difference is so tiny that it requires enormous distillation towers and a great deal of energy.

The difficulty came into public focus in 2023 when Japan began releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Although most radioactive substances had been removed, tritium remained because no practical technology existed to separate it at such a large scale. Instead, the water was diluted before being released under international safety standards.

A Sponge at the Molecular Level

Inside every distillation tower are materials called packings, which create surfaces where water vapour and liquid interact. Traditionally, these packings simply help the process along. The researchers turned them into active participants.

They coated a stainless-steel mesh with a metal-organic framework (MOF) called NH₂-MIL-101(Cr). MOFs are often described as molecular sponges because they contain countless microscopic pores packed into a tiny space. But this sponge does more than hold water. Its chemical structure encourages tritium atoms to exchange places with ordinary hydrogen atoms, making them easier to separate during distillation.

In laboratory tests, the material achieved a separation efficiency of 42.5 theoretical plates per metre, the highest reported for this type of distillation system. The team estimates that a 10-metre distillation column fitted with the new material could outperform the best previously reported packing by 134 times. Compared with the commercial packing materials used today, its overall separation performance could be up to one million times greater under similar industrial conditions.

Those figures still need to be validated outside the laboratory, but they suggest that future treatment systems may no longer need the massive, energy-hungry towers used today.

India has become the world’s fourth-largest market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification capacity after expanding its import infrastructure in 2025, according to the International Gas Union’s (IGU) World LNG Report 2026.

The report says India’s total LNG regasification capacity reached 52.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by the end of 2025, after adding 7.1 mtpa during the year. The increase helped India overtake Spain in global rankings.

The additional capacity came from two projects: the 5 mtpa Chhara LNG terminal in Gujarat and the completion of a breakwater at the Dabhol LNG terminal in Maharashtra, which added 2.1 mtpa by allowing the terminal to operate throughout the year.

LNG is natural gas that is cooled into a liquid so it can be transported by ship. Once it reaches India, it is converted back into gas at regasification terminals and supplied to industries, fertiliser plants, refineries and city gas networks.

Supporting India’s growing energy needs

India’s demand for energy is rising as industries expand and cities grow. Since domestic natural gas production is not enough to meet demand, the country imports a large share of its gas as LNG.

More regasification capacity means India can import larger volumes of LNG from different countries, improving energy security and reducing the risk of supply disruptions. It also gives industries access to a more reliable fuel supply.

The IGU report notes that global LNG trade reached a record 436.98 million tonnes in 2025, with Asia remaining the largest market for LNG.

India has also been working towards increasing the share of natural gas in its energy mix from around 6% to 15%. The government sees natural gas as a fuel that can help reduce dependence on coal while supporting sectors where cleaner alternatives are still developing.

A transition fuel with challenges

Although natural gas burns cleaner than coal, it is still a fossil fuel. Many experts describe it as a transition fuel because it can help lower emissions in the short term while renewable energy continues to expand.

However, natural gas also has environmental concerns. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas, and leaks during production and transport can reduce its climate benefits.

India is therefore following a dual approach: expanding gas infrastructure to meet current energy needs while continuing to invest in solar, wind, green hydrogen and battery storage to achieve its long-term climate goals.

The IGU report shows that India’s latest investments are aimed at balancing energy security, economic growth and the transition to cleaner energy, even as the country continues to expand its renewable energy capacity.