India’s renewable energy sector is at a crossroads. In fact, its stalled capacity has more than doubled over the past nine months. The Sustainable Projects Developers Association (SPDA) called attention to this alarming trend in a letter addressed to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. They announced that the country’s halted renewable energy capacity has finally crossed the 50 gigawatts (GW) mark. This report, first reported by Reuters on August 1st, 2025, further illustrates the challenges plaguing India’s ambitious renewable energy targets.
Yet the country is on a sprint to interconnect a whopping 230GW of renewable energy projects to the grid. They’ll do it by building new interstate-transmission lines. Right now, about 70% of these connections are already built, with the rest still in the bidding process. Severe backlogs in interconnection infrastructure have led thousands of solar facilities to fail their commissioning deadlines. This concern is key in states such as Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Significant Delays Impacting Projects
According to the SPDA’s letter, renewable energy projects of 44GW have received generation licenses from federal agencies. Unfortunately, these projects all lack vital supply agreements—which are essential for the projects to become operational. It has led to an unprecedented backlog of climbing-in-the-air projects. More than 50GW of tendered projects have yet to sign their power purchase agreements, still in limbo.
This figure is a huge increase from the 20GW of stranded projects cited in October 2024. Long-term hold-ups in building vital infrastructure have made waves with industry stakeholders. Now, they are asking what’s the effectiveness and efficiency of India’s renewable energy transition.
“Energy transition is not just about building solar and wind capacity, it is also about ensuring that clean power reaches in a most optimum cost and timely manner.” – SPDA letter
Recent Developments in Renewable Energy
Amidst those continued challenges, we’ve seen positive steps, especially within the sector. Notably, Zelestra commenced full commercial operations at its 435 megawatts direct current Gorbea solar project in Rajasthan in July 2025. This pilot project is a commitment to India’s growing renewable energy landscape and a commitment to the advancement of solar energy technology.
Yet, the national picture is still troubling as a large number of projects still struggle with operational hurdles. An unnamed official from India’s ministry of power recently cited an increasing backlog of delayed renewable energy projects. In particular, they highlighted the critical need to address infrastructure constraints that are holding up needed progress.
Future Outlook
Given India’s ambitious renewable energy targets, overcoming these delays will be key. The SPDA’s observations are a important reminder that simply adding new capacity isn’t enough — it needs to be operationally efficient. The government must prioritize resolving infrastructure challenges to facilitate timely connections and agreements.
