India's renewable energy story is moving faster than most people expected. The numbers are real — over 270 gigawatts of installed capacity, more than half the country's power now coming from non-fossil sources, ahead of the timeline that was set. But on World Environment Day, the people building that future are saying something more than just celebrating the progress. They're pointing at what's still unfinished, what the next decade actually demands, and why the gap between a target on paper and change on the ground remains the hardest problem in the room.

Shivangi Rajpopat, Group Company Secretary and Head of Sustainability at Apraava Energy, put it plainly. India has already surpassed 52% non-fossil installed capacity ahead of schedule, and NDC 3.0 commits to 60% clean power and a 47% cut in emissions intensity by 2035. "India is proving that development and decarbonisation can walk hand in hand," she says. But she's equally clear about where the next challenge sits — not just adding renewable capacity, but building the transmission infrastructure and grid flexibility to actually move that power to where it's needed. "The success of the transformation will depend not only on adding renewable capacity, but also on strengthening transmission infrastructure and grid flexibility, backed by enabling policy and regulatory interventions that ensure clean power can be efficiently evacuated, integrated and delivered to consumers at scale."

S. Basant, Managing Director of Kshema Power India, has watched this shift from the inside over more than two decades in the power sector. What's changed, he says, is not just the technology or the targets — it's the conversation itself. "Sustainability has evolved from being a long-term aspiration to becoming a critical consideration in every conversation about growth and infrastructure." His point is less about any single project and more about a broader shift in how the industry thinks. Economic progress and environmental responsibility, he argues, are no longer in tension. They have to move together, or neither moves at all. "Creating a sustainable future is not the responsibility of governments or industries alone. Every individual, every organisation, and every action contribute to the larger goal."

Alankar Mittal, President and Business Unit Head for Solar & International Business at Livguard, sees the same shift playing out across how companies think about energy decisions. The modern approach, he says, has moved well beyond compliance. Companies are now looking at sustainability as a source of competitive advantage — something that builds value, resilience and the capacity to innovate, not just a box to tick. "The modern approach is not only focused on compliance, but companies are increasingly concerned about how to leverage sustainability initiatives to gain advantages in terms of value, resilience, and innovation." In the energy sector specifically, he points to integrated systems that combine effectiveness with long-term sustainability — designed not just to meet today's demand but to hold up well into the future.

Wind is the part of the renewable story that tends to get less attention than solar, and Aditya Pyasi, CEO of IWTMA, thinks that needs to change. India added over 6 gigawatts of new wind capacity in FY 2024-25 — the highest annual addition in recent years. "Wind energy is central to this transition," he says. "As a cost-effective, scalable, and domestically available resource, wind power reduces dependence on fossil fuel imports while strengthening grid reliability." The untapped potential, both onshore and offshore, is significant. But realising it will require something the sector hasn't always had: consistent policy support, faster project execution, and a domestic manufacturing base strong enough to keep pace with ambition.

Anand Jain, Founder of Aerem, is focused on the financing side of the equation — the piece that often determines whether a clean energy project gets built or stays as a plan. "Green finance plays a vital role in this journey: it catalyses scale, reduces project risk, and attracts long-term capital that turns plans into operating assets," he says. Aerem develops solar, storage and distributed energy projects across urban and rural markets, and Jain's argument is that commercial ambition and environmental purpose aren't in conflict — they're the same thing, properly understood. "The future will be powered by renewables — and by the coordinated action of industry, policy and finance to make that future real."

The climate pressures driving all of this aren't abstract anymore — and Mittal is direct about what that means for business. Heatwaves, water stress and extreme weather events have become an operational reality, not just an environmental concern. His prescription is practical: improve energy efficiency, shift to cleaner alternatives, and build power infrastructure that can handle disruptions without collapsing. "Energy storage, solar energy, and improved power management systems can aid in making companies less reliant on traditional sources of energy while maintaining reliability in times of disruption." Companies that get this right, he argues, won't just be more sustainable — they'll be better positioned to manage risk and keep innovating when conditions get harder.

For companies on the infrastructure side of the energy transition, the sustainability conversation looks somewhat different. Vandana Kudalkar, Senior VP of QHSE at Jyoti Structures Limited, makes a point that often gets lost when the focus stays on generation capacity alone — that how infrastructure gets built matters as much as what gets built. "With infrastructure development continuing to expand, it is important that environmental considerations remain part of how projects are planned and executed," she says. At Jyoti Structures, that means resource efficiency, environmental compliance, and a focus on consistent improvement across operations rather than one-off gestures. "Small actions taken consistently can create a meaningful impact over time."

The question of what happens after the power is generated is one that Ekta Kabra, Vice Chairperson and Managing Director at Geon — Green Energy ON and Kabra Extrusiontechnik, thinks the industry still hasn't answered loudly enough. India has made remarkable progress in building renewable generation capacity. But generation alone doesn't solve the problem if the power isn't there when it's actually needed. "The full potential of clean energy can only be realised when power is available consistently, regardless of weather conditions or time of day," she says. Energy storage, she argues, is the missing piece that turns renewable capacity into genuine energy security — storing excess solar and wind power and releasing it when demand peaks, stabilising the grid rather than straining it. On e-mobility, her focus is equally practical. "The biggest impact will be seen in public transportation, last-mile connectivity, commercial fleets, and logistics." These aren't glamorous segments, but they're where the volume is — and where electrification would cut the deepest into fossil fuel dependence and operating costs. "Together, energy storage and e-mobility will form the backbone of a cleaner, more efficient, and sustainable energy ecosystem," she says.

On the ground, that backbone is already being built — kilometre by kilometre. Pulkit Khurana, Co-Founder and CEO of Battery Smart, deals in the kind of numbers that make the transition feel tangible rather than theoretical. Battery Smart's network has powered more than 3.6 billion emission-free kilometres across India and helped avoid over 260,000 tonnes of CO₂e emissions to date. The model is built around making electric mobility accessible and affordable at the level where it matters most — not premium EVs for urban professionals, but reliable battery solutions for the everyday riders and operators who make up the bulk of India's mobility economy. "Every electric kilometre travelled brings us closer to a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future for generations to come," Khurana says. The scale of what Battery Smart has already done is a useful reminder that the energy transition isn't only a story about policy and infrastructure — it's also about what happens when the right product reaches the right market at the right price.

Manish Dabkara, Chairman and Managing Director of EKI Energy Services and President of the Carbon Markets Association of India, takes a step back from the energy transition itself to make a point that doesn't always fit neatly into the renewable energy conversation. Nature, he says, remains the world's most efficient climate technology — and the one we've consistently undervalued. "Forests, wetlands, grasslands and oceans absorb carbon, regulate water cycles, protect biodiversity and support livelihoods at a scale no engineered solution can replicate." The cost of restoring these systems is real. The cost of losing them is higher and harder to calculate. "Governments, businesses and financial institutions must work together to channel capital towards measurable environmental outcomes." His closing point is worth sitting with: "Nature is not a stakeholder in the economy — it is the foundation upon which every economy is built."

Piyush Goyal, Co-Founder and CEO of Volks Energie, is one of the few voices willing to say out loud what the data has been showing for a while. The 1.5°C threshold — the line the world promised not to cross — is now behind us. "That fact shapes how we work at Volks Energie, and how I think about the years ahead," he says. The shift in tone is deliberate. This isn't defeatism — it's a different kind of accountability. Protecting forests prevents tens of billions of dollars in disaster losses annually, UNEP estimates. Urban green cover can lower city temperatures by as much as four degrees. "These are returns no balance sheet fully captures." What World Environment Day actually tests, he argues, is staying power — whether companies and governments hold to their commitments once the attention moves on. "For us, the answer lies in the projects we deliver, quietly, in the months between."

Mittal's own message for World Environment Day lands in the same place, but from a different angle. For him, the point is that sustainability is no longer about isolated gestures — it lives in the everyday decisions organisations and individuals make and in the systems they're building for the future. Resources need to be used more responsibly, waste needs to come down, and cleaner technologies need to move from the edge of the market to the centre of it. And critically, no single actor can do this alone. "Small actions, if done collectively, may make a huge difference," he says — a reminder that the energy transition, for all its scale and complexity, still comes down to choices being made by real people inside real organisations every day.

Taken together, what these voices describe is an industry at a genuine inflection point. The foundations have been built faster than expected. The next phase — grid infrastructure, storage, policy consistency, nature restoration, patient capital — is harder and less visible than the solar panels and wind turbines that get photographed. But it's where the transition either holds or starts to fray.