The Road to Net Zero: Why Renewables are Central to the Strategy

by Sanjay Puri, Country Manager, SolarEdge India

India’s energy landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation. Soaring electricity demand – driven by manufacturing, logistics, data centers, and the rapid growth of urban areas – is intersecting with a strong national commitment to decarbonize. The result: renewables have shifted from being optional or a regulatory formality to becoming integral to the country’s energy security, economic edge, and climate ambitions. From our perspective at SolarEdge, working closely with commercial and industrial (C&I) clients, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firms, and distribution partners nationwide, we see three major forces steering India’s next steps toward net zero: performance, digitalization, and collaboration.

Leading the Smart Energy Transformation

Every credible roadmap to net zero starts by decarbonizing the electricity that powers our homes, industries, and transportation. Swapping fossil-fueled generation for renewable energy is the quickest way to slash operational emissions and offer stable energy pricing into the future. In a vast and varied market like India, though, the question goes beyond “how much” renewable energy can be added – it’s about “how well” that energy performs over its lifetime, and “how intelligently” it integrates into industrial processes. The focus is shifting from simply increasing capacity at the lowest upfront cost to ensuring high lifetime energy performance. India’s most forward-thinking companies are reframing their decisions to prioritize energy yield, system uptime, safety, and digital transparency. They seek renewable solutions that are reliable, data-driven, and easy to service – solutions that support ongoing operations, not just sustainability reporting.

Rooftop Solar: A Key Opportunity

For the C&I sector, rooftop solar stands out as the fastest and most scalable way to cut carbon emissions. It situates generation close to the point of use, reducing transmission losses and easing pressure on local grids. It also shields businesses from fuel price swings and peak energy tariffs. Compared to large, new utility-scale projects, rooftop solar requires fewer land approvals and can be expanded modularly as the company grows.

The dialogue with industrial customers has evolved. Five years ago, the main concerns were speed and cost. Now, safety and consistency take precedence. Manufacturers want granular monitoring to track the performance of every panel and string, logistics operators demand robust safety features to reduce fire risks, data centers and cold-chain providers are looking for hybrid systems that incorporate storage for greater resilience. The focus isn’t on single components, but on smart, interconnected systems where the whole delivers more value than the sum of its parts.

Digitalization: The Game Changer

Renewable energy becomes truly central to a net-zero strategy when it is optimized, not just installed. Digitalization acts as a force multiplier, transforming variable generation into reliable, predictable power.

This involves harnessing data to forecast production and match it with real-time demand, using advanced analytics to detect underperformance at the module level, automating responses to grid events, and managing multiple sites through unified digital platforms. It also means designing systems with the flexibility to evolve—adding storage as market conditions change, enabling demand response as policy evolves, and participating in new grid services that reward flexibility.

India’s strengths in digital talent and IT innovation are a major asset. The same capabilities that powered the country’s world-class IT and fintech industries can now drive the adoption of “smart energy,” cybersecurity, and AI-driven operations to the energy sector.

Non-Negotiable: Safety and Security

As adoption accelerates, the industry must maintain rigorous standards for safety and quality. With rooftop solar, poor design, mismatched components, or inadequate protections can lead to avoidable incidents and damage reputations—eroding confidence just as the market is taking off. The long-term costs of low-quality systems—lost energy, frequent outages, unexpected maintenance, and early replacements—quickly outweigh any initial savings.

Leading Indian businesses are raising their expectations. They demand compliance with national and international standards, detailed performance guarantees, and digital audit trails. Lifecycle thinking is finding its way into procurement companies now prioritize system uptime, easy servicing, and end-of-life planning. The shift from focusing on “price per watt” to “value per kilowatt-hour delivered safely and reliably” is both wise and essential.

Storage Ready Solutions

The importance of renewables grows further with the integration of storage. Batteries and other storage options help smooth out generation variability, protect critical operations, and allow for time-of-day optimization. For industries, this means more predictable operations and better energy economics. On the grid scale, distributed storage enhances local reliability and can eventually support ancillary grid services.

Financing for Performance – More Energy More Saving

Investment will flow where risks are understood and outcomes are transparent. Financing models that reward long-term performance, rather than just initial installation, can support higher-quality deployments at scale. Pay-as-you-save structures, performance-based operations and maintenance contracts, and insurance products that account for digital risk management are gaining traction. The common denominator is accountability greater data transparency builds investor confidence, making projects more bankable.

To ensure renewables remain central to the net-zero transition, India’s energy ecosystem should focus on five practical priorities:

• Strengthen standards and enforcement: Ensure strict adherence to quality and safety standards, including thorough design reviews and commissioning audits.
• Design for digital: Make telemetry, cybersecurity, and analytics standard practice, so systems are inherently “smart” rather than needing upgrades later.
• Enable storage adoption: Simplify policies that support hybrid systems and speed up cost-effective storage solutions for the C&I sector.
• Build skills and safety culture: Invest in workforce training for high-quality installation, testing, and maintenance—emphasizing a safety-first, data-driven approach.

India’s journey to net zero will be defined not just by the speed of change, but by the quality of decisions. The country has already demonstrated it can scale up rapidly. The next leap will come from optimizing what’s built—rooftop systems with predictable performance, smarter and safer grids, resilient storage, and digital platforms that turn energy data into actionable intelligence.

At SolarEdge, we see Indian businesses shifting their focus from cost to performance, from individual parts to complete systems, and from basic installations to measurable outcomes. This evolution is significant—it positions renewables not as a cost burden, but as a strategic asset that reduces risk, boosts competitiveness, and creates lasting value.