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The world’s energy problem

The world faces two energy problems: most of our energy still produces greenhouse gas emissions, and hundreds of millions lack access to energy..

The world lacks safe, low-carbon, and cheap large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels. Until we scale up those alternatives the world will continue to face the two energy problems of today. The energy problem that receives most attention is the link between energy access and greenhouse gas emissions. But the world has another global energy problem that is just as big: hundreds of millions of people lack access to sufficient energy entirely, with terrible consequences to themselves and the environment.

The problem that dominates the public discussion on energy is climate change. A climate crisis endangers the natural environment around us, our wellbeing today and the wellbeing of those who come after us.

It is the production of energy that is responsible for 87% of global greenhouse gas emissions and as the chart below shows, people in the richest countries have the very highest emissions.

This chart here will guide us through the discussion of the world's energy problem. It shows the per capita CO2 emissions on the vertical axis against the average income in that country on the horizontal axis.

In countries where people have an average income between $15,000 and $20,000, per capita CO 2 emissions are close to the global average ( 4.8 tonnes CO 2 per year). In every country where people's average income is above $25,000 the average emissions per capita are higher than the global average.

The world’s CO 2 emissions have been rising quickly and reached 36.6 billion tonnes in 2018 . As long as we are emitting greenhouse gases their concentration in the atmosphere increases . To bring climate change to an end the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere needs to stabilize and to achieve this the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have to decline towards net-zero.

To bring emissions down towards net-zero will be one of the world’s biggest challenges in the years ahead. But the world’s energy problem is actually even larger than that, because the world has not one, but two energy problems.

The twin problems of global energy

The first energy problem: those that have low carbon emissions lack access to energy.

The first global energy problem relates to the left-hand side of the scatter-plot above.

People in very poor countries have very low emissions. On average, people in the US emit more carbon dioxide in 4 days than people in poor countries – such as Ethiopia, Uganda, or Malawi – emit in an entire year. 1

The reason that the emissions of the poor are low is that they lack access to modern energy and technology. The energy problem of the poorer half of the world is energy poverty . The two charts below show that large shares of people in countries with a GDP per capita of less than $25,000 do not have access to electricity and clean cooking fuels. 2

The lack of access to these technologies causes some of the worst global problems of our time.

When people lack access to modern energy sources for cooking and heating, they rely on solid fuel sources – mostly firewood, but also dung and crop waste. This comes at a massive cost to the health of people in energy poverty: indoor air pollution , which the WHO calls "the world's largest single environmental health risk." 3 For the poorest people in the world it is the largest risk factor for early death and global health research suggests that indoor air pollution is responsible for 1.6 million deaths each year, twice the death count of poor sanitation. 4

The use of wood as a source of energy also has a negative impact on the environment around us. The reliance on fuelwood is the reason why poverty is linked to deforestation. The FAO reports that on the African continent the reliance on wood as fuel is the single most important driver of forest degradation. 5 Across East, Central, and West Africa fuelwood provides more than half of the total energy. 6

Lastly, the lack of access to energy subjects people to a life in poverty. No electricity means no refrigeration of food; no washing machine or dishwasher; and no light at night. You might have seen the photos of children sitting under a street lamp at night to do their homework. 7

The first energy problem of the world is the problem of energy poverty – those that do not have sufficient access to modern energy sources suffer poor living conditions as a result.

The second energy problem: those that have access to energy produce greenhouse gas emissions that are too high

The second energy problem is the one that is more well known, and relates to the right hand-side of the scatterplot above: greenhouse gas emissions are too high.

Those that need to reduce emissions the most are the extremely rich. Diana Ivanova and Richard Wood (2020) have just shown that the richest 1% in the EU emit on average 43 tonnes of CO 2 annually – 9-times as much as the global average of 4.8 tonnes. 8

The focus on the rich, however, can give the impression that it is only the emissions of the extremely rich that are the problem. What isn’t made clear enough in the public debate is that for the world's energy supply to be sustainable the greenhouse gas emissions of the majority of the world population are currently too high. The problem is larger for the extremely rich, but it isn’t limited to them.

The Paris Agreement's goal is to keep the increase of the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. 9

To achieve this goal emissions have to decline to net-zero within the coming decades.

Within richer countries, where few are suffering from energy poverty, even the emissions of the very poorest people are far higher. The paper by Ivanova and Wood shows that in countries like Germany, Ireland, and Greece more than 99% of households have per capita emissions of more than 2.4 tonnes per year.

The only countries that have emissions that are close to zero are those where the majority suffers from energy poverty. 10 The countries that are closest are the very poorest countries in Africa : Malawi, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But this comes at a large cost to themselves as this chart shows. In no poor country do people have living standards that are comparable to those of people in richer countries.

And since living conditions are better where GDP per capita is higher, it is also the case that CO 2 emissions are higher where living conditions are better. Emissions are high where child mortality is the lowest , where children have good access to education, and where few of them suffer from hunger .

The reason for this is that as soon as people get access to energy from fossil fuels their emissions are too high to be sustainable over the long run (see here ).

People need access to energy for a good life. But in a world where fossil fuels are the dominant source of energy, access to modern energy means that carbon emissions are too high.

The more accurate description of the second global energy problem is therefore: the majority of the world population – all those who are not very poor – have greenhouse gas emissions that are far too high to be sustainable over the long run.

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The current alternatives are energy poverty or fossil-fuels and greenhouse gases

The chart here is a version of the scatter plot above and summarizes the two global energy problems: In purple are those that live in energy poverty, in blue those whose greenhouse gas emissions are too high if we want to avoid severe climate change.

So far I have looked at the global energy problem in a static way, but the world is changing  of course.

For millennia all of our ancestors lived in the pink bubble: the reliance on wood meant they suffered from indoor air pollution; the necessity of acquiring fuelwood and agricultural land meant deforestation; and minimal technology meant that our ancestors lived in conditions of extreme poverty.

In the last two centuries more and more people have moved from the purple to the blue area in the chart. In many ways this is a very positive development. Economic growth and increased access to modern energy improved people's living conditions. In rich countries almost no one dies from indoor air pollution and living conditions are much better in many ways as we've seen above. It also meant that we made progress against the ecological downside of energy poverty: The link between poverty and the reliance on fuelwood is one of the key reasons why deforestation declines with economic growth. 11 And progress in that direction has been fast: on any average day in the last decade 315,000 people in the world got access to electricity for the first time in their life.

But while living conditions improved, greenhouse gas emissions increased.

The chart shows what this meant for greenhouse gas emissions over the last generation. The chart is a version of the scatter plot above, but it shows the change over time – from 1990 to the latest available data.

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The data is now also plotted on log-log scales which has the advantage that you can see the rates of change easily. On a logarithmic axis the steepness of the line corresponds to the rate of change. What the chart shows is that low- and middle-income countries increased their emissions at very similar rates.

By default the chart shows the change of income and emission for the 14 countries that are home to more than 100 million people, but you can add other countries to the chart.

What has been true in the past two decades will be true in the future. For the poorer three-quarters of the world income growth means catching up with the good living conditions of the richer world, but unless there are cheap alternatives to fossil fuels it also means catching up with the high emissions of the richer world.

Our challenge: find large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels that are affordable, safe and sustainable

The task for our generation is therefore twofold: since the majority of the world still lives in poor conditions, we have to continue to make progress in our fight against energy poverty. But success in this fight will only translate into good living conditions for today’s young generation when we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.

Key to making progress on both of these fronts is the source of energy and its price . Those living in energy poverty cannot afford sufficient energy and those that left the worst poverty behind rely on fossil fuels to meet their energy needs.

Once we look at it this way it becomes clear that the twin energy problems are really the two sides of one big problem. We lack large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels that are cheap, safe, and sustainable.

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This last version of the scatter plot shows what it would mean to have such energy sources at scale. It would allow the world to leave the unsustainable current alternatives behind and make the transition to the bottom right corner of the chart: the area marked with the green rectangle where emissions are net-zero and everyone has left energy poverty behind.

Without these technologies we are trapped in a world where we have only bad alternatives: Low-income countries that fail to meet the needs of the current generation; high-income countries that compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs; and middle-income countries that fail on both counts.

Since we have not developed all the technologies that are required to make this transition possible large scale innovation is required for the world to make this transition. This is the case for most sectors that cause carbon emissions , in particular in the transport (shipping, aviation, road transport) and heating sectors, but also cement production and agriculture.

One sector where we have developed several alternatives to fossil fuels is electricity. Nuclear power and renewables emit far less carbon (and are much safer) than fossil fuels. Still, as the last chart shows, their share in global electricity production hasn't changed much: only increasing from 36% to 38% in the last three decades.

But it is possible to do better. Some countries have scaled up nuclear power and renewables and are doing much better than the global average. You can see this if you change the chart to show the data for France and Sweden – in France 92% of electricity comes from low carbon sources, in Sweden it is 99%. The consequence of countries doing better in this respect should be that they are closer to the sustainable energy world of the future. The scatter plot above shows that this is the case.

But for the global energy supply – especially outside the electricity sector – the world is still far away from a solution to the world's energy problem.

Every country is still very far away from providing clean, safe, and affordable energy at a massive scale and unless we make rapid progress in developing these technologies we will remain stuck in the two unsustainable alternatives of today: energy poverty or greenhouse gas emissions.

As can be seen from the chart, the ratio of emissions is 17.49t / 0.2t = 87.45. And 365 days/87.45=4.17 days

It is worth looking into the cutoffs for what it means – according to these international statistics – to have access to energy. The cutoffs are low.

See Raising Global Energy Ambitions: The 1,000 kWh Modern Energy Minimum and IEA (2020) – Defining energy access: 2020 methodology, IEA, Paris.

WHO (2014) – Frequently Asked Questions – Ambient and Household Air Pollution and Health . Update 2014

While it is certain that the death toll of indoor air pollution is high, there are widely differing estimates. At the higher end of the spectrum, the WHO estimates a death count of more than twice that. We discuss it in our entry on indoor air pollution .

The 2018 estimate for premature deaths due to poor sanitation is from the same analysis, the Global Burden of Disease study. See here .

FAO and UNEP. 2020. The State of the World’s Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8642en

The same report also reports that an estimated 880 million people worldwide are collecting fuelwood or producing charcoal with it.

This is according to the IEA's World Energy Balances 2020. Here is a visualization of the data.

The second largest energy source across the three regions is oil and the third is gas.

The photo shows students study under the streetlights at Conakry airport in Guinea. It was taken by Rebecca Blackwell for the Associated Press.

It was published by the New York Times here .

The global average is 4.8 tonnes per capita . The richest 1% of individuals in the EU emit 43 tonnes per capita – according to Ivanova D, Wood R (2020). The unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability. Global Sustainability 3, e18, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.12

On Our World in Data my colleague Hannah Ritchie has looked into a related question and also found that the highest emissions are concentrated among a relatively small share of the global population: High-income countries are home to only 16% of the world population, yet they are responsible for almost half (46%) of the world’s emissions.

Article 2 of the Paris Agreement states the goal in section 1a: “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”

It is an interesting question whether there are some subnational regions in richer countries where a larger group of people has extremely low emissions; it might possibly be the case in regions that rely on nuclear energy or renewables (likely hydro power) or where aforestation is happening rapidly.

Crespo Cuaresma, J., Danylo, O., Fritz, S. et al. Economic Development and Forest Cover: Evidence from Satellite Data. Sci Rep 7, 40678 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40678

Bruce N, Rehfuess E, Mehta S, et al. Indoor Air Pollution. In: Jamison DT, Breman JG, Measham AR, et al., editors. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. 2nd edition. Washington (DC): The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2006. Chapter 42. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11760/ Co-published by Oxford University Press, New York.

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Consumers' perceptions of energy use and energy savings: A literature review

Vedran Lesic 1 , Wändi Bruine de Bruin 1,2 , Matthew C Davis 3 , Tamar Krishnamurti 2 and Inês M L Azevedo 2,4

Published 6 March 2018 • © 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd Environmental Research Letters , Volume 13 , Number 3 Citation Vedran Lesic et al 2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 033004 DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/aaab92

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1 Centre for Decision Research, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom

2 Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States of America

3 Socio-Technical Centre,Leeds University Business School, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom

4 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.

Wändi Bruine de Bruin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1601-789X

Inês M L Azevedo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4755-8656

  • Received 25 November 2016
  • Accepted 30 January 2018
  • Published 6 March 2018

Peer review information

Method : Single-anonymous Revisions: 3 Screened for originality? No

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Background . Policy makers and program managers need to better understand consumers' perceptions of their energy use and savings to design effective strategies for promoting energy savings. Methods . We reviewed 14 studies from the emerging interdisciplinary literature examining consumers' perceptions electricity use by specific appliances, and potential savings. Results . We find that: (1) electricity use is often overestimated for low-energy consuming appliances, and underestimated for high-energy consuming appliances; (2) curtailment strategies are typically preferred over energy efficiency strategies; (3) consumers lack information about how much electricity can be saved through specific strategies; (4) consumers use heuristics for assessing the electricity use of specific appliances, with some indication that more accurate judgments are made among consumers with higher numeracy and stronger pro-environmental attitudes. However, design differences between studies, such as variations in reference points, reporting units and assessed time periods, may affect consumers' reported perceptions. Moreover, studies differ with regard to whether accuracy of perceptions was evaluated through comparisons with general estimates of actual use, self-reported use, household-level meter readings, or real-time smart meter readings. Conclusion . Although emerging findings are promising, systematic variations in the measurement of perceived and actual electricity use are potential cause for concern. We propose avenues for future research, so as to better understand, and possibly inform, consumers' perceptions of their electricity use. Ultimately, this literature will have implications for the design of effective electricity feedback for consumers, and related policies.

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1. Introduction

The use of fossil fuels in electricity generation is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) worldwide (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014 ). A large de-carbonization of the energy system is necessary to reduce and stabilize carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other GHG emissions in the atmosphere (IPCC 2014 ). A portfolio of de-carbonization strategies and technologies will likely include curtailment (which is also called 'energy conservation' in much of the energy literature) and energy efficiency strategies targeting the reduction of residential energy use (IPCC 2014 , Pacala and Socolow 2004 ). Curtailment strategies and pertain to actions consumers can pursue to reduce the energy use of existing appliances by using them less or not at all (Azevedo 2014 , Rubin et al 1992 ). Energy efficiency strategies involve the implementation of more efficient appliances (Karlin et al 2014 ). If people misjudge the relative energy use or savings of one appliance or action over another, their efforts to save electricity may end up being misdirected.

Consumers with more accurate perceptions of energy use and savings may be better able to identify the actions that save the most energy, as a first potential step towards behavior change and reduced GHG emissions. Providing consumers with better information about their energy use and potential savings brings the promise of promoting the implementation of more curtailment and energy efficiency strategies and reducing residential greenhouse gas emissions (Bin and Dowlatabadi 2005 , Vassileva et al 2012 , Attari et al 2010 , Attari 2014 , Baird and Brier 1981 , Chen et al 2015 , Frederick et al 2011 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ). Many consumers want better information, and hope that smart meters will help them to understand how much electricity is used by specific appliances (Krishnamurti et al 2012 ). Without information, consumers may develop folk theories and associated misconceptions about their energy use (Kempton 1986 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Krishnamurti et al 2013 ).

This paper aims to understand how well consumers can assess the electricity used by different household appliances, and how much can be saved by implementing different curtailment or energy efficiency strategies. We provide a systematic overview of the empirical studies that have focused on the accuracy of consumers' perceptions of energy consumption and energy savings for specific appliances and actions. The paper is organized as follows. First, we briefly describe how we selected the studies that are included in this paper. Second, we discuss the key empirical findings reported in these studies. Third, we describe methodological differences in terms of how studies have measured consumers' perceptions of energy use. Fourth, we discuss the different ways in which actual energy consumption has been measured across studies, so as to evaluate the accuracy of consumers' perceptions. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future studies and implications for developing effective feedback design and programs.

2. Methods and data

We performed a search for studies that used all possible combinations of the following keywords: 'consumer perceptions', 'consumer awareness', 'energy consumption', 'energy use', and 'energy savings'. We searched the following online databases: ScienceDirect, EBSCO, general library catalogues of Carnegie Mellon University and University of Leeds, limiting our search to articles published after 1980. From this initial search, we only retained peer-reviewed articles that reported the direct results of experimental, survey, or interview research with human participants. We also searched for studies in Google Scholar (where we focused solely on the first 25 pages of results). We read the abstract of each of the papers (and when it was unclear from the abstract, we also read the full paper to assess if a study would remain in our final dataset). We focused on identifying the papers that specifically reported perceptions or awareness of energy use and savings. Our initial search identified 32 peer-reviewed papers. We also identified six additional peer-reviewed papers in the references of these 32 papers. We included one additional paper on the basis of a reviewer's recommendation. In appendix table A1 we present the resulting 39 papers. We then read each of the 39 papers to identify those papers that met the inclusion criteria of: (1) focusing.... (2) presenting and (3) measuring actual use without necessarily making a comparison of actual use with perceptions (see table 1 ). Our review covers the resulting 14 studies that meet the inclusion criteria. For example, Allcott's ( 2011 ) paper on fuel energy consumption or Becken's ( 2013 ) paper on perceptions of energy use and actual saving opportunities for tourism accommodation made it into the initial selection of 32 papers but did not made it to final review because they are not in the domain of residential energy use. Of the 14 studies we reviewed, ten papers specifically presented comparisons of assessed perceptions and actual use (see table 1 ).

Table 1.  Summary of the studies reviewed.

3. Main empirical findings

We identify four main empirical findings across the 14 studies in our review:

  • 1.   Consumers have systematic misperceptions of energy use, such that electricity use is often overestimated for low-energy consuming appliances, and underestimated for high-energy consuming appliances (Attari et al 2010 , Baird and Brier 1981 , Chen et al 2015 , Frederick et al 2011 , Gatersleben et al 2002 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 , Schley and DeKay 2015 );
  • 2.   Consumers tend to prefer curtailment over energy efficiency strategies (Attari et al 2010 , Becker et al 1979 , Kempton et al 1985 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 );
  • 3.   Consumers lack information about the electricity savings associated with specific strategies (Attari et al 2010 , Easton and Smith 2010 );
  • 4.   Consumers use heuristics for assessing the electricity use of specific appliances (Baird and Brier 1981 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ), with some indication that more accurate judgments are made among consumers with higher numeracy and stronger pro-environmental attitudes (Attari et al 2010 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ).

We discuss each of these findings in turn in the sections below.

Table 2.  Key methodological features across studies.

3.1. Systematic misperceptions of energy use

Consumers tend to systematically overestimate the electricity use of low-energy consuming appliances and activities, while underestimating the electricity use of high-energy consuming appliances and activities (Attari et al 2010 , Chen et al 2015 , Frederick et al 2011 , Gatersleben et al 2002 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ). In one study, participants reported their perceived energy use for nine appliances, in terms of their hourly electricity use in kWh (Attari et al 2010 ). Participants received a reference point of a 100 W incandescent light bulb when making their assessments. The accuracy of perceptions was evaluated by comparing perceptions to actual energy use, as estimated from the literature and government agencies. According to the authors, participants underestimated the energy use of the nine appliances by a factor of 2.8 on average, while also overestimating the electricity use of low-energy consuming appliances (Attari et al 2010 ). A follow-up study asked participants to consider the same nine appliances, while providing either a 3 W LED, a 100 W incandescent light bulb or a 9000 W electric furnace as the single reference point (Frederick et al 2011 ). Frederick et al ( 2011 ) used the same estimates for actual energy use and savings as Attari et al ( 2010 ). Participants reported higher perceptions of electricity use across the nine appliances when they were presented with a higher rather than a lower reference point, with perceptions being highest when no reference point was provided at all (Frederick et al 2011 ). Moreover, overestimations were larger when questions were asked in terms of kWh versus Wh (Frederick et al 2011 ). Although Frederick et al ( 2011 ) found that the findings of Attari et al ( 2010 ) depended on reference points and reporting units, the overall pattern of underestimating the electricity use for high-consuming appliances and overestimating it for low-consuming appliances remained (Attari et al 2011 ).

Other studies revealed that same pattern (Chen et al 2015 , Gatersleben et al 2002 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ) despite measuring perceptions and actual use in different ways (table 1 ) and varying reference points and reporting units (table 2 ). Regression towards the mean may have contributed to electricity use being overestimated for low-energy consuming appliances and underestimated for high-energy consuming appliances, because perceptions and actual use are imperfectly correlated (Attari et al ( 2010 ). However, regression towards the mean does not 'explain' why the correlation is imperfect, or why reported perceptions depend on how they are assessed. Similar patterns of findings have also been reported with regards fuel consumption (Allcott 2011 , Larrick and Soll 2008 ) and water use (Attari 2014 ).

3.2. Tendency to prefer curtailment strategies over energy efficiency strategies

Several studies in the literature note that consumers tend to choose curtailment strategies over energy efficiency strategies, even though the latter are potentially more effective for saving energy (Attari et al 2010 , Becker et al 1979 , Kempton et al 1985 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 ). For example, open-ended interviews with Michigan residents revealed that they tended to talk more about curtailment actions such as turning off the lights and lowering the winter thermostat, rather than on energy efficiency actions, such as better house insulation (Kempton et al 1985 ). A similar pattern was found in other open-ended interviews (Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 ) and in a national survey that asked participants for strategies to reduce energy use (Attari et al 2010 ). Another study found that most participants overestimated the savings that could be derived from curtailment by lowering the thermostat, as compared to implementing more energy-efficient devices (Becker et al 1979 ). Possible reasons for this preference for curtailment over energy efficiency are (i) that that curtailment is likely to have no financial costs in most circumstances, whereas efficiency will likely involve some form of investment or additional financial cost, e.g. investment in insulation or LED lighting; (ii) curtailment behaviors come to mind more easily than energy efficiency strategies, due to the former being implemented more frequently than the latter.

3.3. Lack of information about energy savings

In the absence of information, consumers may use their own experience to create folk theories about how different appliances or behaviors might consume or save energy (Kempton 1986 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 ). Perhaps as a result, consumers misjudge how much electricity is used by specific appliances and behaviors (Attari et al 2010 , Easton and Smith 2010 ). The same pattern of misperceptions is seen in perceptions of energy use and energy savings (Attari et al 2010 ). Indeed, participants tend to overestimate low-consuming actions and underestimate high-consuming ones (Attari et al 2010 ).

Easton and Smith ( 2010 ) asked questions related to consumers' perceptions of energy consumption, energy-related behavior, and energy savings over a year, and then combined the responses to those questions with direct monitoring of metered energy, water, and temperatures provided by four community based retrofit organizations. Notably, they show that households underestimate the extent of repairs and maintenance that is required on their dwellings to save energy.

3.4. Heuristics and individual differences

When reporting their perceptions, participants also seemed to use heuristics or decision rules to simplify the task at hand (Tversky and Kahneman 1974 ). The commonly used 'availability heuristic' reflects the tendency to judge the likelihood of an event by the ease with which an example comes to mind (Schwarz et al 1991 ). Individuals who use the availability heuristic tend to systematically overestimate events that come to mind more easily, and underestimate events that come to mind less easily (Tversky and Kahneman 1973 ). Consumers may also use such heuristics when generating strategies for saving energy (Wilson and Dowlatabadi 2007 ) and assessing the electricity use of their appliances (Baird and Brier 1981 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ). Specifically, participants judge electricity use to be higher for appliances that are frequently used or thought of (Schley and DeKay 2015 ) as well as those that are larger in size (Baird and Brier 1981 ). Such heuristics will lead to predictable inaccuracies, such as for infrequently used appliances that use relatively more electricity or frequently used appliances that use relatively little (Baird and Brier 1981 ). Similarly, curtailment actions may come to mind more easily than energy-efficiency actions due to being implemented more frequently—leading to overestimations of the associated energy savings.

Moreover, the accuracy of perceptions may systematically vary across participants. Two studies find that more numerate participants have more accurate perceptions of energy use for specific appliances (Attari et al 2010 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ). One study reports that participants with stronger pro-environmental attitudes have more accurate perceptions of energy use and potential savings (Attari et al 2010 ), while another reports that they do not (Schley and DeKay 2015 ).

4. Methodological differences between studies

The studies we reviewed differ in their research method, including qualitative interviews (Easton and Smith 2010 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 ), and surveys (Abrahamse et al 2007 , Abrahamse and Steg 2009 , Becker et al 1979 , Gatersleben et al 2002 , Kempton et al 1985 , Attari et al 2010 , Baird and Brier 1981 , Chen et al 2015 , Frederick et al 2011 ). Across these research methods, we identify three methodological features that may affect consumers' reported perceptions of electricity use:

  • the presence or absence of a reference point, with reference points varying in size from a 3 W LED (Frederick et al 2011 ), to a 100 W incandescent light bulb (Attari et al 2010 , Frederick et al 2011 ), and even a 9000 W electric furnace (Frederick et al 2011 );
  • the units in which consumers report their perceptions of electricity use, such as in kWh (Attari et al 2010 , Baird and Brier 1981 ) or in dollars (Karjalainen 2011 );
  • the time periods in which consumers report their perceptions of electricity use, such as per hour (Attari et al 2010 , Baird and Brier 1981 , Frederick et al 2011 ), per month (e.g. Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 ) or per year (Easton and Smith 2010 : Schley and DeKay 2015 ).

4.1. Reference point

Behavioral decision researchers have long suggested that the provision of a reference point, or comparison information, affects people's reported perceptions (Hammond et al 1998 , Sunstein 2002 ). That is, people tend to adjust their perceptions towards the reference point that is provided (Chapman and Johnson 2002 , Attari et al 2010 ). Some studies in our review provided reference points to participants with the aim of helping them generate their perceptions (table 2 ). For example, studies have presented information about the electricity use of a 3 W LED (Frederick et al 2011 ), a 100 W incandescent light bulb (Attari et al 2010 , Frederick et al 2011 ), a 100 W washing machine (Baird and Brier 1981 ), and a 9000 W electric furnace (Frederick et al 2011 ). Perhaps not surprisingly, participants report higher perceptions of electricity use when being presented with a higher rather than a lower reference point, with perceptions being highest when no reference point is provided at all (Frederick et al 2011 ). Future studies should test whether the provision of multiple reference points provides information about the feasible range, without biasing judgments upwards or downwards, as compared to when no reference point is provided.

4.2. Reporting unit

Some studies asked participants to report the electricity use of their appliances in different units of consumption (table 2 ), such as kWh (Attari et al 2010 , Baird and Brier 1981 ) or dollars (Becker et al 1979 , Easton and Smith 2010 ). When describing the energy consumption associated with their home heating, most people tend to refer to monetary values (Kempton and Montgomery 1982 ). Indeed, consumers may be more familiar with monetary units than with energy units because of the salience of paying electricity or heating fuel bills (Darby 2006 ). As a result, they may want to see feedback about their electricity use displayed in terms of monetary units rather than energy units (Karjalainen 2011 ). However, simple feedback provided in energy units may be the most effective way to increase knowledge about energy use (Krishnamurti et al 2013 ). Behavioral decision studies in other domains suggest that consumers may overestimate prices as compared to other units (Bruine de Bruin et al 2011 , Vohs et al 2006 ). Because of the small sample sizes and variability in study designs, it is unclear at this stage whether monetary units or energy units might be better at helping consumers to judge their electricity use. Future research should systematically test the effect of reporting units on consumers' perceptions of how much electricity is used by their appliances.

4.3. Time period

Studies vary in terms of the time period participants have considered when reporting their perceptions of appliance's electricity use (table 2 ). For example, participants have been asked to assess how much electricity an appliance uses over the course of an hour (Attari et al 2010 , Frederick et al 2011 ), a month (e.g. Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 ), or a year (Easton and Smith 2010 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ). The time period may also be left unspecified (Chen et al 2015 ). One drawback of asking consumers about their perceived energy use over the course of an hour is that comparisons with actual use may not be realistic (i.e. it may not make sense to ask how much energy a coffee machine or a toaster uses if it is running for a full hour, since that does not reflect usual usage patterns). Instead, the researcher may ask participants for the frequency of use of an appliance and the energy use over that period. Additionally, the time period consumers are asked to consider may affect their reported perceptions. Monthly periods may be more familiar to people given that historically most utilities would send monthly utility bills. Yet, technology that enables consumers to receive more frequent electricity use information is available (Anderson and White 2009 ) and some work has shown that consumers are interested in seeing information such as daily load curves (Ueno et al 2006 ). In other research that does not focus on energy use, researchers have found that self-reported hours of TV watching depend on the time period used in the survey, with more accurate responses being provided when time periods match people's natural experiences (Schwarz 1999 ).

Although none of the reviewed studies examined whether assessed time periods used affects perceptions, there is reason to believe that they might. Especially when considering longer time periods, participants may assume the appliance is running for the full duration of that time period, or they may assume what is a 'typical' usage of the appliance for them. If participants make different assumptions about how to respond to such questions as the time period increases, their reported perceptions will likely show a larger variability. If perceptions are to be reported for typical use over a time period, it is important to note that people often misestimate the amount of time they spend on tasks (Fasolo et al 2009 ). They may overestimate the electricity use of appliances they tend to use longer (Yeung and Soman 2007 ). In addition, behavioral economics research on magnitude effects suggests that people display a larger subjective temporal discount rate for small magnitudes than for large ones (Chapman and Winquist 1998 ). Thus, it may be easier to think of specific appliances in terms of their relative time periods of use.

Table 3.  Approaches to measure actual energy use.

Note: Ratings include very low, low, medium, high and very high. The values shown in the table reflect the authors' own subjective assessment of these criteria.

5. Measures of actual energy use

This section focuses on the methods for measuring actual energy use and energy savings, so as to assess the accuracy of consumers' reported perceptions. The 14 studies identified in our review that include a measure of actual energy use can be divided into four categories with regards how they measured actual energy use:

  • 1.   General estimates from the existing literature and other sources (these include Attari et al 2010 , Becker et al 1979 , Baird and Brier 1981 , Frederick et al 2011 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 , Kempton et al 1985 , Schley and DeKay 2015 );
  • 2.   Estimates based on self-reported energy use (these include Gatersleben et al 2002 , Abrahamse et al 2007 , Abrahamse and Steg 2009 );
  • 3.   Estimates based on household-level meter readings (this includes Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Easton and Smith 2010 );
  • 4.   Measures of real-time energy usage from smart meters (Chen et al 2015 ).

Each of these approaches has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, as summarized in table 3 . In table 3 , we provide our assessment of these four approaches on five criteria, on a scale ranging from very low to very high: (1) data accessibility, which refers to the ease of obtaining the data, (2) cost of measurement, which refers to how costly it might be to gather the data, (3) data accuracy, which refers to the extent to which the data reflect actual energy consumption rather than an estimate, (4) data complexity, which refers to the level of analysis needed to prepare, store, and compute the data, and (5) third-party involvement, which refers to the need to involve other organizations in obtaining the data.

5.1. General estimates from the existing literature and other sources

Many of the reviewed studies used general estimates of energy use or energy savings of specific appliances and behaviors, so as to evaluate the accuracy of participants' reported perceptions (table 1 ). Some studies used publicly available estimates from existing publications including expert reports (Becker et al 1979 , Mettler-Meibom and Wichmann 1982 , Kempton et al 1985 ), energy statistics from for example governmental agencies (Attari et al 2010 , Frederick et al 2011 , Schley and DeKay 2015 ), or information from local stores (Baird and Brier 1981 ). Using these sources is convenient because they are readily available. However, this approach comes with the severe limitation of not capturing individual heterogeneity in consumption. As a result, it is impossible to know whether any differences between perceived and actual consumption are due to misperceptions by the consumer or due to average energy use being a poor proxy for the actual energy consumption of a specific household.

5.2. Estimates based on self-reported energy use

It is also possible to estimate an individual's actual energy use for specific appliances from self-reports (Abrahamse et al 2007 , Abrahamse and Steg 2009 , Gatersleben et al 2002 ). Gatersleben et al ( 2002 ) developed a model to calculate actual energy consumption based on participants' self-reported behavior. The authors asked participants to report which appliances they own. For each appliance, the total number of appliances of that type in the household was multiplied by the average annual energy use of the appliance as estimated for an average Dutch household.

Estimates of actual energy use by appliance were then computed for individual participants and compared to their reported perceptions of energy use. The benefit of this approach is that individuals' perceptions are compared to their own usage patterns and appliances. However, one limitation is that participants may not know the required information, or provide inaccurate reports due to imperfect memory or response biases (Baumeister et al 2007 ). Another drawback of self-reports is that they may be labor-intensive for participants to complete, especially if the study includes a large number of appliances.

5.3. Estimates based on household-level meter readings

Another approach is to estimate an individual's energy use for specific appliances after obtaining a household-level meter reading from the utility company. Since the late 1970s, many studies have evaluated the accuracy of consumers' perceptions of electricity, gas, or water use on the basis of meter readings provided by utility companies (e.g. Heberlein and Warriner 1983 , Hirst et al 1982 , Kempton and Montgomery 1982 , Midden et al 1983 , Seligman et al 1978 , Verhallen and van Raaij 1981 ). The benefit of this approach is that it provides household-specific information, allowing comparisons of individuals' perceptions with their own electricity use (Schley and DeKay 2015 ). Various intervention studies (Battalio et al 1979 , King 2010 , Kline 2007 ) have also used household-level energy data to provide feedback to households and to test the resulting effects on residential energy use. However, household-level readings too come with potential limitations. First, they do not provide information regarding the energy consumption of specific appliances. Second, many studies have relied on monthly assessments from utilities which only conduct actual meter readings a few times per year, and make estimates for the rest of the year.

5.4. Measures of actual energy use from smart meters

The deployment of smart meters has enabled the measurement of households' real-time energy consumption (Asensio and Delmas 2015 , Chen et al 2015 ). These measurements may include (i) single load monitoring combined with algorithms to estimate the consumption of different appliances, or (ii) multi-modal sensing. Single-load monitoring through smart meters is a non-intrusive method for measuring real-time household-level electricity use and can be combined with specifically designed algorithms to identify when specific appliances are being used (Berges et al 2008 ). Even with advanced algorithms, this approach will involve underlying uncertainty. Instead, multi-modal sensing overcomes that uncertainty through the installation of special sub-meters to capture usage for each appliance (Froehlich et al 2011 ). Sub-meter data facilitate direct comparisons between consumers' perceived and actual use of appliance-level energy use. Using sub-meter data also allows for better tests of the effectiveness of interventions. This approach has been implemented in the Pecan Street community located at the University of Austin in Texas (Pecan Street 2017 , Smith 2009 ). However, sub-meters are more intrusive and costly to implement, limiting the feasibility of using them with a large or nationally representative sample.

6. Conclusions and recommendations for future studies

Our review of the literature covers 14 peer-reviewed studies that empirically assessed consumer perceptions of electricity use that has been published over the past 35 years. An even smaller number of studies (N=10) compared consumers' perceptions to actual energy use or savings. The main findings from the reviewed studies include: (1) electricity use is typically overestimated for low-energy consuming appliances, and underestimated for high-energy consuming appliances; (2) curtailment strategies are typically preferred over energy efficiency strategies; (3) consumers lack information about how much electricity can be saved through specific strategies; (4) consumers use heuristics for assessing the electricity use of specific appliances, with some indication that more accurate judgments are made among consumers with higher numeracy and stronger pro-environmental attitudes.

However, we note that methodological differences between studies may affect consumers' reported perceptions, including the provision of reference points, as well as the units and time periods used in the existing studies. Moreover, studies vary in terms of whether the accuracy of perceptions has been evaluated in terms of general estimates of actual use, self-reported use, house-level meter readings, or real-time smart meter readings.

We suggest several avenues for future research. First, there is a need to systematically examine the effect of reference points, units, and time periods on reported perceptions. Second, to better compare consumers' perceptions to their actual appliance energy use, measures of households' actual energy consumption should be taken at the individual households' appliance level. Ideally, such studies would be conducted with large representative samples. Moreover, it remains unclear whether consumers with more accurate perceptions of their energy use by appliance, or of the savings they could obtain, do indeed make more informed decisions about their energy use and savings. It also remains to be seen whether informed decisions lead to behavior change and reductions of residential GHG emissions.

Understanding consumers' perceptions (and misperceptions) of energy use and savings may help to inform the design of curtailment and energy efficiency policies. The use of smart technology and associated services, such as in-home displays, mobile apps, and other information and communication technology related services could facilitate improved measurement as well as improved feedback to consumers (Krishnamurti et al 2012 ). However, care should be taken to present feedback in a way that consumers can use and understand (Davis et al 2014 ). For example, tailored feedback may be provided to consumers to explain their misperceptions, while using reference points, units, and time periods that make the most sense to them. Research should also be developed to then test whether correcting misperceptions through feedback does indeed help consumers to make more informed decisions about curtailment and energy efficiency. In the domain of health, researchers have shown that correcting misperceptions of risk can foster behavior change (Avis et al 1989 , Kreuter and Strecher 1995 , Lindan et al 1991 ). Thus, continued research on the topic of how well consumers can assess appliance energy use brings some promise of informing consumers' decisions to implement curtailment and energy efficiency behaviors.

Appendix.  Table A1.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge support from by the Consumer Data Research Centre at University of Leeds, Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/L011891/1], Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University Business School. This work was supported by the center for Climate and Energy Decision Making (SES-1463492), through a cooperative agreement between the National Science Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University, as well as the Swedish Risksbanken Jubileumsfond Program on Science and Proven Experience.

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Achieving energy justice in Malawi: from key challenges to policy recommendations

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  • Published: 12 February 2022
  • Volume 170 , article number  28 , ( 2022 )

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  • Darren McCauley   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3951-1129 1 ,
  • Rebecca Grant 2 &
  • Evance Mwathunga   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8126-9906 3  

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Addressing energy provision and access in Sub-Saharan Africa is a key global challenge. Drawing on interviews with key stakeholders, this paper applies an energy justice framework in overviewing energy realities and policies in Malawi, where electricity access remains among the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa. The use of woodfuel remains high for meeting cooking, heating, and lighting needs leading to indoor air pollution, with serious health consequences, and widespread deforestation. Responses to these dual challenges, a lack of electricity access and ongoing woodfuel use, must be rooted in notions of equity, fairness, and justice. Application of energy justice theorising provides insights into how policy stakeholders are responding to complex and interconnected issues of energy generation and access in low-income settings. Overall, a just response to these energy challenges is possible, but only if it is built on local inclusive governance with fairer and effective systems of investment.

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1 Introduction

Despite recent improvements to electricity access in Malawi, access to electricity remains at just 13.4% of the population (IEA 2020 ) lower than the Sub-Saharan African regional average of 47.9% (ibid). Figure  1 below sets out the average electricity access (%) in Malawi in the context of Southern Africa, 2010–2020. It shows Malawi as having the lowest average population access to electricity (7.2%) in Southern Africa, followed by DR Congo and Tanzania (7.8% and 8.8% population access, respectively). The impacts of both COVID-19 and population growth threaten to increase absolute numbers of those without access to electricity in Malawi (WB 2021 ). Both, a lack of sufficient and reliable energy supply and limits to grid extension, hinder rollout of electrification and expansion of access (Arndt et al. 2014 ; Kaunda 2013 ).

figure 1

Average electricity access (%) in Malawi in the context of Southern Africa, 2010–2020: This map shows United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) % population with access to electricity for 2010–2020 ((UNSTATS 2021 ). Nations in dark blue have higher levels of electricity access (the highest is Botswana at 41%), and those in darker shades of red have the lowest access. Malawi has the lowest average population access to electricity in Southern Africa (7.2%), followed by DR Congo (7.8%) and Tanzania (8.8%)

Systems of hydropower dominate electricity generation, with 372 MW installed hydroelectricity capacity out of a national total of 532 MW (USAID 2019 ). However, vulnerability to climate changes is increased by an overreliance on hydropower for energy provision; a drought in Malawi led to a nationwide blackout in December 2017, and modelling, conducted by the IPCC and reported in the 2019 African Energy Outlook (IEA 2019 ), predicts decreasing capacity of hydropower with climate changes. Malawi’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy, and Mining announced in October 2018 that it must import electricity from Zambia in light of the significant threat of blackouts (Samarakoon 2020 ). The Chinese-backed Kam’mwamba Coal Power Station offers to increase installed capacity in the country by 300 MW, almost doubling the existing national electricity capacity. It is to be based outside the city of Blantyre in the south of Malawi, with the coal delivered from Mozambique. This contrasts with the stated aim of international organisations such as the World Bank to enable more renewable energy deployment in Malawi, and global mandates such as those in COP26 which are targeting finance for renewable energies in low-income countries (WB 2021 ). As of February 2021, the ministry has not secured the $667 million needed from China’s Export and Import Bank (Exim). At this critical energy crossroads, we assess how best to ensure clean future energy provision, increase electricity, and clean cooking access while protecting the environment in a fair and equitable manner.

Energy justice offers a way to capture these concerns. There are several approaches to understanding and applying energy justice, including life cycle approaches, three tenets, energy justice principles, and whole systems approach (Jenkins et al. 2020 ). We utilise the Energy Justice Framework to assess questions of fairness and equity of both energy production and consumption, in rural and urban areas, from the household and village communities to the national and international levels. This approach assesses distributional (where social inequalities emerge), recognition (who is affected), and procedural (when those affected are overlooked in decision-making) injustices (Feenstra and Özerol 2021 ; Thomas et al. 2020 ; Velasco-Herrejon and Bauwens 2020 ; Wood and Roelich 2020 ). This paper draws on the three-tenet approach to energy justice to assessing the energy transition in Malawi (see Fig.  2 ), examining opportunities to expand theorising on energy justice to settings of pre- and ongoing electrification in Malawi.

figure 2

An energy justice framework for assessing the energy transition in Malawi. This infographic represents the energy transition (pale green arrow) in Malawi from the use of wood-based energy sources (showed by the blue panel on the left: trees and forests, wood-felling, and wood burning) to renewable energy technologies (showed by the blue panel on the right; wind turbine, solar panels, and tidal turbine). The green arrow represents the exploration of this transition through the lens of distributional justice, procedural justice, and recognition justice. Distributional Justice is represented by the green map icon, which refers to the geographical distribution of social inequalities. Procedural Justice, represented by the purple handshake icon, refers to the exclusion of those most affected by injustice from decision-making processes. Recognition Justice is represented by the red globe icon and refers to those groups who are most affected

Energy justice, which emerged from the environmental justice movement and concerns over the unequal spatial and temporal impacts of energy system siting in the USA, refers to a diverse body of academic contributions seeking to identify, locate, and examine the emergence of injustices across energy supply chains (Pellegrini-Masini et al. 2020 ). Despite this diversity, Pellegrini-Masini et al. ( 2020 ) argue that definitions of energy justice are united by a common vision for equality (formal and substantive) coupled with a concern over historic and ongoing inequalities relating to impacts and engagement in energy systems.

One of the most commonly applied frameworks of energy justice across academic case studies is the three tenets of energy justice which we draw on in this paper (Lacey-Barnacle et al. 2020 ). These include distributive justice, concerned with the unequal distribution of benefits and risks emerging across energy supply chains, procedural justice, and the pursuit of fair, inclusive, and accessible involvement in procedures governing systems of construction, distribution, use and impacts, and recognition justice, and the full inclusion and recognition of all affected stakeholders (Jenkins et al. 2016 ). Other frameworks understand energy justice according to 10 key principles, which cover availability, affordability, intergenerational and intra-generational equity, due process, accountability, transparency, and intersectionality (Sovacool et al. 2017 ). This diversity and dissonance in definitions, however, has arguably come at the cost of application of energy justice principles to policy (Pellegrini-Masini et al. 2020 ).

Case studies observed through the lens of energy justice originally focused primarily on systems of large-scale on-grid electricity generation in the Global North (Jenkins et al. 2020 ). However, case studies are increasingly examining injustices in lower income, off-grid, and pre-electrification case studies globally, including in sub- Saharan Africa (Boamah 2020 ; Boamah et al. 2021 ; Todd and McCauley 2021a , b ). Alongside critiques of a western-centric focus in case studies energy justice (see Lacey-Barnacle et al. 2020 ), authors are increasingly looking beyond anthropocentric experiences and conceptualisations of injustice to incorporate the intersecting, and unequal, impacts of energy systems on human wellbeing and ecosystem health (Grant et al. 2021 ).

Our aim in this paper is to explore how public, private, and third sector organisations based throughout Malawi (see a list of organisations interviewed in Appendix ) identify, describe, and explain the energy challenges Malawi faces, through an energy justice lens. Our research data draws on qualitative interviews undertaken in Malawi in March and June 2019. The authors utilised the energy justice framework of distributional, recognition, and procedural justice to probe and analyse interview data on the energy policy and financing landscape in Malawi. We sought to understand, from those working in the policy sphere, the challenges impacting on electrification and energy generation in Malawi and the solutions proposed to address these. The paper is based on thirty interviews with representatives from international organisations, national government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and businesses. We assess the discourse produced by each policy stakeholder interviewed, coding the resulting data based upon the energy justice framework. A literature review on energy challenges in Malawi and the energy justice framework is set out below to extrapolate key existing themes relevant to our energy justice research in Malawi.

2 Literature review

We review existing literature on the main energy challenges facing Malawians and policymakers before moving on to explain the energy justice framework more fully in relation to current literature. We performed a literature search on energy challenges in Malawi and then energy justice and policy through google scholar, focusing on Scopus ranked journals. For a more comprehensive and systematic review of literature on energy justice more broadly, please see Jenkins et al. ( 2020 ). The literature reviewed here is used to inform our research and policy recommendations, which are outlined in the proceeding sections.

2.1 Energy challenges in Malawi

Concerns relating to low levels of electrification and clean cooking access continue to dominate the research landscape in Malawi (Arndt et al. 2014 ; Aung et al. 2021 ; Barry et al. 2011 ; Gamula et al. 2013 ; Kaunda 2013 ; Onyeji et al. 2012 ; Tchereni et al. 2013 ). Energy poverty in Malawi has been defined as an ‘endemic’ widespread ‘state of deprivation where households can barely meet the most the minimum energy requirements for basic needs’ by Tchereni et al. ( 2013 ), whose research focuses on the extent of energy access issues across households in both urban and rural Malawi. Widespread energy poverty has also been confirmed by census data from the Government of Malawi (Malawi 2017 , 2018 ). Within this context, more recent work by Aung et al. ( 2021 ) has highlighted the challenges of what is termed as the ‘ultra-poor’, which are households in Malawi that are primarily rural and are beyond both national grid and off grid energy generation networks. Aung et al. ( 2021 ) show, in contrast to previous research, that substantial variation exists between better-off households and ultra-poor households.

This leads us to a second challenge, relating to the establishment of bottom-up community or village-based energy schemes. This strand of research in Malawi has presented examples of community-based projects in rural areas, also highlighting challenges which projects face with respect to funding, objective setting, and competing priorities (Adkins et al. 2010 ; Jagger et al. 2017 ; O'Shaughnessy et al. 2014 ; Owen et al. 2013 ; Toth et al. 2019 ; Trotter 2016 ). Access to electricity and clean cooking remains a core theme through which to understand energy challenges in the country. These projects also encourage wider connected non-energy changes such as sustainable practices or new skills development, with literature examining co-benefits or unexpected challenges which emerge in projects with multiple objectives (e.g. relating to long-term financial sustainability and the establishment of key objectives). Better organised and systematically funded rural communities are positioned as a solution for inadequate access to electricity and heating. An example is the Millennium Villages project which started in 2004 and represented over 80 villages across ten sub-Saharan countries, including Malawi. It has developed whole-system changes that have provided alternative forms of self-sustaining economic growth from technological development to new farming techniques (Adkins et al. 2010 ). Such research has built on the power of community participation and involvement.

Additional understudied challenges in the literature on Malawi highlight interconnected research themes relating to limits to expansion of individual- and community-level access to electricity relating to finance and regulatory environments enabling investment. Chirambo ( 2016 ) shows, for example, that a national-level combination of price-guarantee schemes, cross-subsidies, and environmental taxes would cause higher levels of international energy sector investment. There has also been some recent critical reflection on the effectiveness of international renewable investment in Malawi in relation to systems of off-grid solar (Samarakoon 2020 ).

A fourth challenge emerges in relation to how best to achieve better outcomes in non-energy services such as health, food, or the environment through the development of related energy infrastructure. Suhlrie et al. ( 2018 ) demonstrate how intermittent and ineffective electricity generation affects health facilities in Malawi, especially night-time care services. They call for a health-driven wave of investment in energy infrastructure. Schuenemann et al. ( 2018 ) show how a sustainable approach to the biomass energy sector in Malawi could lead to higher levels of food security. We assess these and other challenges through the energy justice three tenet approach.

2.2 Addressing key policy challenges through the energy justice three-tenet approach

Energy justice is defined as the fair and equitable application of rights across systems of energy provision, access, and associated environmental services. It encourages researchers to broaden analyses beyond technical or engineering-based solutions to energy system problems (Jenkins et al. 2020 ; McCauley et al. 2013 ; Welton & Eisen 2019 ). It is also a valuable tool in understanding how inequalities such as poverty, gender, and social class interact within the context of energy policymaking, systems, and infrastructures (Heffron et al. 2018 ; McCauley et al. 2019 ; Sovacool et al. 2020 ). Too few studies attempt to reflect on these interconnections in countries like Malawi (Lacey-Barnacle et al. 2020 ). We argue that our contribution adds a much-needed response.

We apply the energy justice framework to understand how policy stakeholders in Malawi view the distributional, recognition, and procedural energy injustices of the four key energy challenges we have identified in the literature, and others yet to be identified. In this way, it can assess energy policy challenges and help to offer practical recommendations (Heffron et al. 2018 ; Jenkins et al. 2017 ). Marlin-Tackie et al. ( 2020 ) argue, for example, that their energy justice analysis points towards the urgent need to enhance local government to better deal with fracking. New policy mechanisms have been identified in relation to local decision-making in Bangladesh through the energy justice framework (Moniruzzaman & Day, 2020 ). Kruger and McCauley ( 2020 ) put forward recommendations for financial compensation in hydropower policy Democratic Republic of Congo. The focus of such research is to explore the expert opinions of key policy stakeholders at all levels.

Energy justice in policy literature sets out a ‘trade-off’-based understanding that is well established in existing policy analysis literature (Gunningham 2013 ; Kosai and Tan 2017 ; Oliver and Sovacool 2017 ). The overarching aim is to achieve a balance between competing interconnected policy objectives (Shah et al. 2021 ; Song et al. 2017 ; Sprajc et al. 2019 ). Analytical tools such as the energy policy trilemma have been applied in both quantitative research (Heffron et al. 2018 ) to capture trade-offs better. However, it is yet to be applied to qualitative field-based research. Energy policy trilemma research on justice indicates that there are three critical interconnected objectives concerning (i) increasing secure energy provision in energy generation systems, (ii) expanding electricity access and access to clean cooking solutions to reduce poverty, and (iii) commitment to promoting environmental stewardship and sustainability (Heffron et al. 2018 ; McCauley 2018 ). Existing literature argues that a balance between all three priorities is ideal for achieving energy justice. In the conclusion, we reflect on where policy recommendations are most urgently needed in Malawi.

Our research data is based on interviews undertaken in Malawi in 2019, with questions and coding guided by the Energy Justice Framework. Our methodology is rooted in qualitative research approaches (Bell et al. 2012 ), guided by a constructivist philosophical paradigm.

Constructivists argue that the focus should be on how the world is shaped (or constructed) by the way people communicate about it via speech, visual cues, and/or text (Houston 2013 ; Sheftel & Zembrzycki 2013 ). These visions and experiences, or storylines, are constructed by policymakers using a variety of discursive categories to make sense of phenomena, e.g. energy challenges and solutions (Moore et al. 2017 ). Analysing storylines produced in verbal interviews with policymakers allows us to better understand how key stakeholders construct their understanding of justice in relation to agency and power.

We aimed to uncover the justice dimensions of the viewpoints held by key policy stakeholders based throughout Malawi. We restricted the research timeframe to 2019 when the Malawian government was (and still is at the time of writing) considering the Chinese-funded Kam’mwamba Coal Power Station. We developed our overall research question from the literature review on energy justice, as outlined above. Our aim was to understand how policymakers understand the justice dimensions of the key energy challenges in Malawi. The energy justice framework argues that energy justice can be understood as relating to distributional, recognition, and procedural injustices (McCauley et al. 2019 ). Our interviews investigated who we should recognise as the most affected by energy scarcity and the key actors driving the current energy policy agenda. We also asked interviewees to assess how communities were engaged in energy decision-making to better understand energy injustices.

We conducted 30 interviews with representatives from three key policy stakeholder groups, i.e. government (8), NGOs (12), and businesses (10). We sought gender balance in our interviewees with a final breakdown of 14 female and 16 male interviewees. A full list of organisations of all types is in Appendix 1 . All interviews took place in Blantyre and Mulanje (home to the off-grid first Independent Power Producer in Malawi) in the south, and the capital Lilongwe in central Malawi. Out of Malawi’s total population of 17.5 million, the southern region has the highest population, with 44 percent of the total population. The Central Region is the second most populous, according to national census data in 2018, with 43 percent of the population, while the northern region population makes up 13 percent of the total population.

We numbered all thirty interviews, randomised their order, and then presented them in text as (#1), (#2), etc. with the following according to our three analytical categories: government, Footnote 1 NGOs, Footnote 2 and business. Footnote 3 Our aim was to assess the discourse produced by each stakeholder interviewed to code for energy injustices, recognising that the language (and meaning) of ‘justice’ is not shared by all and focusing instead on a language of risks, benefits, and opportunities to capture injustice. This allows us to then select key quotations from our different interviewees. These are then the basis for our qualitative data, as explored in our results below. The three dimensions of distribution, recognition, and procedural injustices were used as key starting points for identifying critical citations. The interviews were semi-structured in nature but were in keeping with these three themes and categories.

We also added a fourth category that focused on questions around energy consumption and production to determine the nuances within each of these processes. This was to make sure we covered both issues covering access to electricity and clean cooking solutions, and provision issues raised by our interviewees. As outlined in our literature review above, electricity access or consumption is only one challenge. A fuller spectrum of energy challenges is then addressed in our analysis, as detailed in the results below. Literature, reports, and selected newspapers were consulted to develop a triangulated robust account of stakeholder interpretations. We did not seek to code these documents, as the focus was on the interviews. They allowed us to corroborate some statements from interviewees and key events.

We completed a full ethical and risk assessment and an additional process set out by the Malawian National Committee on Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Research aims were made clear through a statement of intent, and participants were required to give their consent. Participants were asked to give their consent for audio data to be recorded where possible, for data use in analysis and data presentation. Data was stored in a fully identifiable format on a computer. Participants were given the opportunity to ask questions regarding the project and to withdraw at any point. All ethical and risk assessment forms are available upon request.

We present below our assessment of the interview data based on our three primary qualitative codes, i.e. distributional, recognition and procedural injustices. Insights into the processes of energy production and consumption were coded separately but linked to three primary qualitative codes and enabled us to triangulate insights. We integrate results from the fourth coding category of energy production and consumption into the three justice dimensions and helped us to triangulate insights provided by our interviewees. As outlined above in the methods, the number denotes the interview source in brackets, such as (#12). We reflect throughout on how these results connect to existing literature, before moving into specific policy recommendations in the last section of the paper.

4.1 Distributional justice

Our interviewees pointed to the unequal distribution of benefits from existing electricity generation and transmission. The average connectivity of the Malawian population to the national grid is at 11% (Gov 2017 ; Malawi 2018 ). While energy poverty is widespread, access rates differ between urban and rural regions, and between regions. Access to the national grid in cities is higher than in rural areas, a well-reported finding from research elsewhere (Banerjee 2018 ; Caniglia et al. 2017 ; Gossling 2016 ; Kelly-Reif and Wing 2016 ; Perez and Egan 2016 ). For Malawi, one of the key issues identified was a lack of financial capacity to afford electricity connection and services (#3). The interviews revealed a persistent focus on urban communities as proximate to existing national grid networks, and of concerns relating to ability to pay in rural regions limiting expansion (#3, #5, #8). Lack of on-grid electrification, coupled with descriptions of spatially ‘random’ positioning of off-grid electricity schemes in rural regions, contributed to an environment where businesses were described as moving to urban areas to optimise trade (#10, #15). An unequal distribution of benefits is clear not only along rural/urban spatial descriptors but also at a regional level.

The northern parts of Malawi have least access to electricity compared to the central and southern regions where important cities such as Lilongwe and Blantyre are located (#16). Electricity lines in the north of Malawi were described as being of lower voltage (#21), with those in rural locations in northern Malawi described as the most disadvantaged in the country with respect to quality of connection. However, interviewees also expressed significant concern for the south of the country given the severe deforestation ongoing in the region (#17, #18). The clearance of land for agricultural purposes, observed in the surrounding areas of Mulanje, contributed to scenarios where residents were described as having to walk up to 10 km (#17) to collect firewood for cooking, heating, and, in some households, lighting. This was contrasted with those in northern regions, where deforestation was less extensive and demand for fuelwood lower in Mzuzu (in part due to lower population density) (#17).

Distributional injustices also relate to proximity to renewable energy resources such as hydropower. Interviewees in Mulanje highlighted that those living close to mini-grid hydropower benefit through reliable access to electricity and job creation tied to development (e.g. in Mulanje Electricity Generation Agency) when compared to other living further away from facilities of power generation (e.g. those upstream or downstream) (#17).

Interviews also attested to a strong link between distributional variation in electricity access and the inequalities experienced between different consumer groups. Where resources to expand generation capacity and extend national grid infrastructure are limited, industrial development was frequently siloed to cities such as Lilongwe. This was also reflected in approaches to energy planning which prioritised regions conceptualised as having the highest growth potential: ‘the south [is] more developed and more industrial…the growth rate is different and the center is growing the fastest…while the north is much smaller’ (#2). Electrification planning is focused on expanding access in an increasingly industrialised central and southern Malawi (close to major cities). Steel processing, agro-processing of sugar, cotton and mangoes, and mining were identified in the south as the most power-intensive industries (#2). An interviewee (#5) judged that World Bank-funded solar projects in the North were a ‘vanity project’ that national government could not afford: ‘Industry in the South needs to encourage large scale/bulk buy-in (of electricity)’ to make national energy planning more effective (#8).

Beyond industrial demand, there are concerns regarding the economic sustainability of electricity expansion in rural areas given lack of ability to pay. Many households opt instead for charcoal use to meet heating, cooking, and lighting needs (#4, #23). Markets for charcoal remain dominant especially in peri-urban and rural regions including Mulanje, with regulations seeking to limit the sale of charcoal having limited efficacy in reducing unsustainable deforestation for fuelwood (#18). The use of mini-grid renewable energy generation for expanding access to electricity in rural regions was described as incompatible given low purchasing power and the lower levels of investment in northern regions of Malawi. This, in turn, entrenches the ongoing high use of fuelwood and charcoal (#18). Promises tied to the development of large-scale solar projects, such as JCM solar, in the Northern regions of Malawi are already linked to a set of distributional injustices linked to the export of electricity produced locally to larger cities (#23, #21) (see also case study on JCM solar (Horst et al. 2021 )).

Distributional inequalities arise also according to income. Higher income populations live in urban areas, with greater access to electricity provided through on-grid connection (#4). In contrast to global dialogues which consider electricity as a right, discourses from some interviewees indicated that, for lower income settings in rural areas, electricity was instead conceptualised as a privilege (#6). Widespread poverty and income inequality correlated with rurality defines electrification planning of ESCOM, the primary energy company in Malawi; a lack of economic incentives and low ability to pay were described as explanatory factors behind lack of expansion to rural regions by ESCOM (#8, #4). The ‘long-term dearth of financial capacity’ among lower-income groups is leading to a lock-in of social class-based distributional and temporal disparities, with present low ability defining future potential for connection (#21). Other interviewees argued, in contrast, that most socio-economic categories can afford a basic level of electricity. This dialogue of deservedness which defines electrification planning is underplayed, given existing challenges of generation meeting limited present demand (#9).

In Malawi, distributive injustices arise in energy system planning, in construction and in rollout of energy generation and transmission. A focus on urban, grid connected, and high economic growth potential areas both entrenches and is symbolic of a planning rationale dominated by ability to pay in resource-constrained settings. The spatially uneven distribution of planned and ongoing construction of energy systems, such as hydroelectricity schemes on the Shireriver in the south and descriptions of random siting on mini-grids, magnifies both inequalities in access to electricity (and quality of supply) and injustice tied to ongoing use of woodfuels. Distributive injustices linked to trade-offs, for example, in prioritising industrial centres at the expense of expanding the natural grid in northern and southern Malawi, are emerging already; deforestation threatens livelihoods and hampers the efficiency of existing systems of energy generation, and poor-quality electricity access further alienates geographically disparate populations in the north. Unlike mapping energy injustice in grid-developed settings in the Global North, neglecting to incorporate the physical value and symbolism of grid-connection (see Boamah et al. 2021 ) in Malawi will risk entrenching existing distributive injustices.

As a final comment on global distributive injustice, both the negative impacts of climate change, and impacts of decarbonisation, are unequally distributed globally (Lehmann and Tittor 2021 ). Our research points to adverse impacts of climate change, through increasing periods of drought and flash flooding, on livelihoods and energy generation in Malawi. Simultaneously, at an energy crossroads, Malawi risks a high-carbon lock-in under current energy scenario planning (see Alova et al. ( 2021 ) for wider discussion on this) or stagnating electricity generation with over-reliance on hydropower (see also Alova et al. 2021 ). Attention must be paid to the ‘triple inequalities’ of decarbonisation (see above), and the need for diverse energy mixes to meet multiple (and evolving) energy needs in systems of low and uneven electricity access (Kumar et al. 2021 ).

4.2 Recognition justice

Identifying recognition injustices is key to addressing overall energy injustice in Malawi. The interviews showed two key stakeholders in Malawi who are too often overlooked by the lack of electrification which extend discourses of energy justice beyond the Anthropocene (Pellegrini-Masini et al. 2020 ). These include the environment and women.

First, stakeholders identified the environment as a prominent, underrepresented, and often homogenised stakeholder in discussions on energy planning (#3, #12, #16, #17). Our interviews juxtapose the contravening intrinsic and monetary values of environment with devastating effects of lack of inclusion in energy policy (as explored in the discussion). The environment in everyday translation was most frequently related to trees; interviewees simultaneously described trees as ‘backbone to African societies’ and in Malawi the ‘environment equals trees’ (#12). A custodian responsibility for their management argued that trees cut through ‘every section of society’ (#13). Contrary to assumption, one interviewee commented, ‘people do make a connection between cutting trees and climate change’ (#15). We caution, however, against extrapolating the conflation of trees with environment with wider populations (risking the romanticisation of certain ways of connecting to spaces).

However, dialogues concerning the monetary value of trees also dominate especially where poverty is endemic. Interviewees commented that ‘when people are in survival mode, you don’t think about the environment’ with firewood free (#2), with others also noting that, in conditions of extreme poverty, deforestation for fuelwood is essential even where there is concern for the impact of this behaviour (#2, #7, #15, #16, #18). Ongoing use of fuelwood for energy has resulted in rapid and large-scale deforestation in the country’s more populated central and southern regions (#2, #4,#17, #18). Communities turn to producing and selling charcoal as a source of generating income, even though such practices are illegal (#11, #17, #18). Further practices that were identified as promoting deforestation are brick manufacturing.

Stakeholders’ perceptions indicated a disregard for sustainable forestry management at government level; one stakeholder noted that the ‘Malawian government knows what climate change is’ (#16); however, ‘between awareness and action there is a huge disconnect’ (#3). The country’s most prominent source of energy generation, hydropower, plays a role in deforestation. Deforestation upstream limits the capacity of hydropower systems, with demand for timber increasingly needed in planning and construction, in addition to aforementioned agricultural and fuelwood uses (#9, #14, #15, #17). They identified population growth as another variable, exerting pressure on forests (#16). Large-scale deforestation increases vulnerability to climate shocks through increasing soil instability and vulnerability to shocks through periods of extreme rainfall and flooding (#16, #17). Arguably a focus on hydropower, coupled with limited expansion of electricity access, has led to an environment where deforestation is widespread and is indicative of lack of full inclusion of the environment, as a complex and interconnected ecosystem, in long-term electrification planning. Existing research suggests that this could have a profound long-term impact in Malawi, as past environmental policy failures affect a society's ability to view new futures (Blom-Hansen 1997 ; Béland 2009 ; Feindt 2010 ; Jacobsson and Lauber 2006 ; Leach 2008 ).

Second, the interviewees acknowledged that women are experiencing the brunt of the adverse effects of energy scarcity in Malawi (#1, #3, #4, #5, #11, #12, #15, #17, #18, #23). This finding complements existing research (Castan Broto et al. 2018 ; Damgaard et al. 2017 ; Islar et al. 2017 ; Mostert and van Niekerk 2018 ; Munro et al. 2017 ) with new empirical insight into Malawi; ‘in Malawi, those who are most affected are the ladies, the females’ (#18). A lack of access to electricity, and ongoing use of woodfuel for heating and cooking, adversely impacts of women with responsibilities over household tasks including cooking and collecting resources for this (Halff et al. 2015 ; Jagger et al. 2017 ; Munro et al. 2017 ; Tang and Liao 2014 ). Conversely, household financial management was described as a male responsibility leading to a juxtaposition where ‘Wood collection is a woman’s task. Cooking is a woman’s task. Yet financing is a man’s task, so saving wood is not important to men’ (#11).

With increasing deforestation, those responsible for collecting firewood travel greater distances to source materials: ‘Before the 2000s, women would walk shorter distances to collect firewood. Because the wood was cut, they now travel long distances. These days it is not easy. You can spend 1–2 h where you used to spend 10 min’ (#18). Collecting woodfuel increases vulnerability to risks of sexual assault and rape, especially when carried out in darkness or alone, with interviewees describing this as common in both nationally managed and privately managed areas (#4, #11, #17, #18, #23). When women are caught stealing the firewood by the guards and rangers, these abuse their power and demand ‘for terrible things from women […] sexual favours’ (#23). This was questioned by government officials, with some attributing violence against women instead to those managing tea estates (#18, #23). When probed as to solutions, interviewees argued that alleviating gender-based violence relied on encouragement of women not to harvest firewood alone (#18). Contentions over the allocation of responsibility for safeguarding against violence linked to deforestation highlight complexities in understanding fully the means through which energy injustices emergence (Toth et al., 2019 ).

Jenkins et al. ( 2016 ) argue that recognition injustices manifest not only as a lack of recognition or inclusion, but also in the processes of misrecognition. The environment is misrecognised (and therefore underrepresented) in two critical ways: in its conflation with trees and in its conceptualisation as a homogeneous category and stakeholder. This misrecognition in energy policy could lead to minimising or misrepresenting both the ecosystem and human health risks, and co-benefits, linked to different electrification strategies. As a wider critique of energy justice, recognising the ‘environment’ as a stakeholder in energy systems is lacking (Pellegrini-Masini et al. 2020 ).

For women, non-recognition injustices manifest in ongoing responsibilities and disproportionate impacts through collecting and cooking with low-cost or free sources of fuel (e.g. woodfuel) as a form of gendered energy poverty (Feenstra and Özerol 2021 ; Moniruzzaman and Day 2020 ). Misrecognition was evident in discussions on responsibility for alleviating injustices. Solutions to gender-based violence centred on female responsibility (and action) to prevent violence rather than solutions to tackle the complexities of legislation mandating protection of forested areas: a need to reduce deforestation, and ongoing (gendered) realities of fuelwood use in regions lacking electrification (Kojola and Pellow 2021 ).

4.3 Procedural injustices

Inclusive decision-making about energy is vital to achieving fair electricity access. Our findings highlight a new focus on investment as a procedural justice issue, missing from similar exisitingresearch (Aung et al. 2021 ; Gamula et al. 2013 ; Kaunda 2013 ), our findings examine procedural injustices relating to investment. This reinforces other investment-based assessments of procedural justice (de Graeff et al. 2018 ; Thorpe 2018 ; Walker and Baxter 2017 ). Interviews revealed four barriers to procedural injustices in electricity access in Malawi: (i) a perceived financial risk by, and lack of financing from, foreign investors for energy; (ii) inefficient government schemes for energy investment and growth; (iii) inefficient management of utilities; and (iv) financing conditions to extending and maintaining services for the national grid.

Financial support from donors and foreign investors is critical for expanding capacity of, and access to, electricity from Malawi’s energy sector. Interviewees identified a lack of such financing as a significant procedural injustice (#1, #3, #4, #7, #8, #11, #12, #21), with descriptions of the energy sector as risky environment to invest in (#8, #20, #21). Several challenges compound perceptions of high risk; management and administrative staff face high turnover (#12, #19) with long-term changes harder to implement (#1). Furthermore, both a historical lack of economic growth (e.g. GDP) and limited industrial development impact on perceptions of financial risks associated with investing in Malawi (#2, #3, #5, #6, #7, #11, #12, #21). This is often translated into the assumption that ‘ability to pay is lacking’ and concerns over financial returns from investments in energy systems (#21). To overcome the procedural barriers to international financing, there is an urgent need to ‘de-risk investment’ (#8) in Malawi.

Secondly, perceptions of a lack of efficient and robust government policies for energy investment and growth are hampering fair electricity access in Malawi (#1, #3, #8, #7, #5, #11, #12, #20, #22). Energy policy and legislation was described as ‘(not) stable enough for investors for renewable energies’ (#22), with a ‘lack of a strong political will’ (#3) further entrenching a lacking coherent and robust regulatory environment for investment. The economic viability of energy projects is thwarted by conflicts between affordability of energy tariffs and pricing policies and a need for economic returns (#6): ‘for projects to be sustainable they need to be turned into workable business models’ (#11), and ‘current tariffs make it not viable to invest in solar’ (#15).

Regulatory frameworks hinder independent power producers and private sector energy solutions from developing (#20, #21, #22). Interviewee #1 described an environment where alternative energy sourcing solutions were prematurely dismissed by those involved in national energy planning, with the example of an energy inter-connector from neighbouring Mozambique highlighted by #1. The interviewees reinforced a lack of centralised planning and policy for electrification also a procedural injustice (#4, #6, #7, #8, #15, #16, #21), exemplified in what was described as a ‘piecemeal approach’ (#8) to energy system planning. The Malawian Rural Electrification Programme (MAREP) was also noted to have a ‘problematic’ (#21) approach to energy planning, with time lag in connection to grid (#15). MAREP has only connected eight out of 336 areas (Malawi 2018 ). Donor-driven mini-grids were described as interim solutions indicative of slow centralised planning (#5, #6, #17); ‘long-term solution is always to provide access to the grid’ (#6), and where sites selection for mini-grids is random (#22). Mini-grids themselves were cited as unsustainable approaches to rural electrification (#14, #16, #21). As one interviewee put it, it is ‘easy to build the grid but difficult to sustain itself’ (#19). This has led to a scenario in Malawi where development happens ‘upside down’ (#4), with utilities reactive rather than proactive at local level (#4, #16).

This mirrored what they described as occurring at a wider governance level. Inconsistency in policy, lack of implementation, and enforcement of policy were brought up throughout interviews (#5, #12, #16, #18); an interviewee elaborated further that ‘I believe […] policies should be talking the same language…(w)e have policies contradicting each other’ (#18). A lack of long-term sustainability and coherence of national energy policy were also identified as key concerns: ‘Malawi needs a sustained policy for at least a decade’ (#15) with questions remaining over ‘government policy [… and…] will it be consistent going forward?’ (#22). The inadequacy of planning and policy in centralising electrification efforts was symptomatic of a government with a ‘reputation for not following through with projects’ (#29). This lack of centralisation represents a procedural injustice, where access to electricity is random and future connection unsystematic.

Third, the inefficient management of national utilities ESCOM and EGENCO contributes to energy injustices. Despite an unbundling of ESCOM into two independent utilities, ESCOM (distribution) and EGENCO (generation), interviews revealed concerns over the historical and existing links between the two state managed entities (#3, #6, #14, #27). They described EGENCO as being unfairly preferred over other IPPs (#3) by ESCOM in plans to expand generation. Discussions highlighted a perception of inefficiency in the operation and management of both entities which slowed and prohibited access to electricity (#3, #6, #10, #12, #16, #20, #21, #30). With ESCOM constrained by lack of government financing and security of income (#2), delays in payments to EGENCO were common (#14). They described ESCOM as ‘one of the risky African utilities’ (#22) being ‘not financially solvent’ (#21). Together, the recent unbundling of ESCOM and the slow pace (2–3 years) of negotiating a power purchasing agreement (PPA) (#14, #20, #22) contributed to an environment of uncertainty for potential private sector investors: ‘still seeing how this unbundled entity (ESCOM) will work out’ (#22).

Finally, financing restrictions to extending and maintaining services for the domestic grid was a recurrent theme (#1, #2, #5, #11, #12, #19). Lack of security around financing hinders centralised planning (#2, #7, #12). ESCOM struggles to secure funding with little support from the government (#2) despite being ‘key’ to electrification aims (#7). Others were critical of government financing capacity (#3, #6, #25). One interviewee stated that ‘the government won’t manage to invest’ to meet electricity access targets of 30% by 2030 (#22). We move on to reflect on the key points raised in our analysis for making policy recommendations for Malawi.

5 Conclusions and policy recommendations

The focus of policymakers in Malawi is on increasing electricity access and access to clean cooking solutions throughout the country. However, there is a specific need in Malawi to address the low ability to pay for electricity in both rural and urban areas to stimulate demand and to support expansion in generation and transmission. There is widespread recognition of the different gendered impacts of ongoing fuelwood use in cooking, heating, and lighting (Smith et al. 2017 ), and policy must further seek to incorporate this into policies targeting deforestation and charcoal markets. But these policies need to focus explicitly on supporting greater rural access to electricity. Figure  3 below presents the stark contrast between rural and urban electricity access in Malawi and more generally the region.

figure 3

Urban and rural electricity access (%) in Malawi in the context of Southern Africa: This map shows United Nations Development Programme URBAN (left panel) and RURAL (right panel) population percentage access to electricity for 2010–2020 (UNSTATS 2021 ) as calculated by the authors. Population access to electricity is given as a percentage for each nation. UNDP data shows that Malawi is the only state in Southern Africa where less than half of the urban population has access to electricity. Poor rural electricity supply is widespread in the region, with South Africa the only state where most of its rural population has access to electricity

5.1 Reduce reliance on national government and utilities

Government and national private organisations in Malawi are both the drivers and victims of ineffective management. These actors adopt the position of barriers to change (Clayton et al. 2013 ; Walklate 2005 ; Wallimann-Helmer 2015 ). This is most apparent when we consider the role of national utilities. The division of distribution and generation was intended to open up electricity markets to new actors, to increase competition and lower costs. However, discussions indicated limited evidence for this, with repeated instances of inefficient operation and management of both sectors and the joint effect of maintaining the status quo. The increasing complexity of national utility management has resulted in further consolidation rather than expansion in the energy sector. This is a critical factor in slowing the adoption of renewable energy solutions and increasing electricity access.

5.2 Attract new actors in decentralised off-grid energy development

One implication of this mismanagement has been the outsourcing of off-grid development. Outside organisations such as the World Bank and other international organisations drives in support of Trotter and Abdullah ( 2018 ), rural off-grid renewable energy policy in Malawi rather than national government. Many of these organisations, including the US Power Africa initiative, aim to increase rural electrification (Bos et al. 2018 ). The generation and connection targets, however, favour centralised electrification which benefits urban populations over rural populations. There is evidence of change however, with an increasing international push from donor agencies for off-grid electrification to meet the needs of rural and low-income populations (USAID 2019 ).

In Malawi, the breakup of utilities and the division of distribution and generation have crippled national energy policy making. This was leading to further mismatch between the national and local knowledge of project limitations and potential with the aims of international organisations. This reminds us that the ‘bullying’ of foreign sources in national energy management to promote renewables, as perceived in the literature (Monyei et al. 2018 ; Todd et al. 2019 ), can be rather symptomatic of an existing failed or doomed national management of the transition. The result is that we support calls for greater decentralisation (Lawrence 2020 ; Wiese 2020 ; Zalengera et al. 2020 ).

National utilities are, instead, hindering the development of new decentralised players on the market in off-grid renewables. The division of distribution and generation utilities and their management have not led to new community or local energy organisations emerging. National utilities and physical infrastructure continue to be reliant on fossil fuel industries and struggle to move away from this dependency (Mostert and van Niekerk 2018 ; Yenneti and Day 2016 ). In Malawi, at the national level, this manifested itself in an over-reliance on the proposed interconnector with Mozambique. This policy is a critical fall-back position where fossil fuel industries are well established in Mozambique. There was a continued interest in centralisation and electrification, rather than embracing renewable solutions beyond the development of solar parks in the North. We argue that private companies and governments, national or international, are strategic actors, but captured in a web of disorganisation, under-funding, and overall inertia. The low level of organisational capacity for managing large-scale energy transitions is beyond the existing actor networks in Malawi.

5.3 Increase local energy democracy

In support of Cai and Aoyama ( 2018 ), we conclude that Malawi needs a more systematic policy towards encouraging community or local level renewable energy projects. This must include both a proper engagement with local governance structures and community owned investment. As raised by several interviewees, the current approach is too piecemeal, centrally controlled, and geographically dispersed. Investments in local renewable energy projects must, first, include a legal obligation of community ownership of both financial and technical resources and, second, engage in building local energy democracy. Existing research in Malawi presents a similar picture to that of our interviewees, namely, small-scale technology-based pilot schemes (such as lighting or cooking) as we find in Adkins et al. ( 2010 ) and Barry et al. ( 2011 ). In these schemes, the benefit is reduced to (often short-term) technological solutions with no sustained engagement with community governance structures. Renewable clean energy provision depends on comprehensive local empowerment.

5.4 Improve local environmental management as a key driver for energy futures

The environment is central to determining energy futures in Malawi. Energy justice overlooks the importance of the local environment as a critical factor in policy development (McCauley et al. 2016 ). Our results underline the intimate connection between how the environment is managed and the effects of this on a society’s ability to visualise a different energy future. In Malawi, deforestation is not only a physical process. It is a collective national policy and community failure. Interviews reflected on the inability of policymakers and individuals to halt the devastating impacts of tree cutting. The male-dominated activity of turning trees into charcoal as a source of income drives an impossible vicious circle of income-based tree cutting (Owen et al. 2013 ; Smith et al. 2017 ; Zulu and Richardson 2013 ). The importance of empowering local environmental management and restoration is overlooked in policy solutions. The empowerment of local governance through fairer technological and financial investments must therefore be tied to protecting the environment and, for Malawi, reforestation.

This in-depth qualitative assessment of Malawi policymakers, representing a multi-sectoral, diverse group of commentators, has revealed the complexity involved in appreciating the interconnections between inequalities such as poverty, gender, social class with energy policymaking, physical systems, and infrastructures. Future research should try to engage other qualitative methods, and quantitative methods, in exploring the different dimensions of how grid systems interact with gendered realities. The success of a national policy affects future policy trajectories. Here, the failure in Malawi to cope with deforestation is hindering future energy developments. We need further research to explore such interconnections between energy policies and other sectors in Global South contexts to appreciate energy trajectories. Last, social inclusion is an integral but only one part of procedural injustices. We must understand inefficiency and incapacity to respond to challenges as important in procedural justice terms where an inability to act generates procedural inequalities. Research in this or other national contexts needs to explore the processes involved in such inequalities and their solutions.

The level of responsibility among low-income nations for avoiding or embracing fossil fuels is heavily contested. It is beyond the full consideration of this paper. We conclude with observations for the future of energy justice literature. The energy justice framework has allowed researchers to explore new empirical contexts like Malawi. Applying distribution, recognition, and procedural dimensions of energy justice offers an insightful framework for analysing such contexts. Energy justice is also normative, driving principles of good governance and new behaviours. Can the national energy policies and associated realities as outlined above ever be just if they ignore the intergenerational need to transition away from or resist adopting fossil fuels? Energy justice literature continues to overlook this critical question. The Malawian context as a pre-fossil fuel least developed nation is relevant for such consideration. We call for more ‘transition-aware’ work in such contexts.

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Appendix: List of organisations

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Renewable energy for sustainable development in India: current status, future prospects, challenges, employment, and investment opportunities

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The primary objective for deploying renewable energy in India is to advance economic development, improve energy security, improve access to energy, and mitigate climate change. Sustainable development is possible by use of sustainable energy and by ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for citizens. Strong government support and the increasingly opportune economic situation have pushed India to be one of the top leaders in the world’s most attractive renewable energy markets. The government has designed policies, programs, and a liberal environment to attract foreign investments to ramp up the country in the renewable energy market at a rapid rate. It is anticipated that the renewable energy sector can create a large number of domestic jobs over the following years. This paper aims to present significant achievements, prospects, projections, generation of electricity, as well as challenges and investment and employment opportunities due to the development of renewable energy in India. In this review, we have identified the various obstacles faced by the renewable sector. The recommendations based on the review outcomes will provide useful information for policymakers, innovators, project developers, investors, industries, associated stakeholders and departments, researchers, and scientists.

Introduction

The sources of electricity production such as coal, oil, and natural gas have contributed to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential to raise the standard of living by providing cleaner and more reliable electricity [ 1 ]. India has an increasing energy demand to fulfill the economic development plans that are being implemented. The provision of increasing quanta of energy is a vital pre-requisite for the economic growth of a country [ 2 ]. The National Electricity Plan [NEP] [ 3 ] framed by the Ministry of Power (MoP) has developed a 10-year detailed action plan with the objective to provide electricity across the country, and has prepared a further plan to ensure that power is supplied to the citizens efficiently and at a reasonable cost. According to the World Resource Institute Report 2017 [ 4 , 5 ], India is responsible for nearly 6.65% of total global carbon emissions, ranked fourth next to China (26.83%), the USA (14.36%), and the EU (9.66%). Climate change might also change the ecological balance in the world. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) have been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The latter has hoped to achieve the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to well below 2 °C [ 6 , 7 ]. According to a World Energy Council [ 8 ] prediction, global electricity demand will peak in 2030. India is one of the largest coal consumers in the world and imports costly fossil fuel [ 8 ]. Close to 74% of the energy demand is supplied by coal and oil. According to a report from the Center for monitoring Indian economy, the country imported 171 million tons of coal in 2013–2014, 215 million tons in 2014–2015, 207 million tons in 2015–2016, 195 million tons in 2016–2017, and 213 million tons in 2017–2018 [ 9 ]. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternate sources for generating electricity.

In this way, the country will have a rapid and global transition to renewable energy technologies to achieve sustainable growth and avoid catastrophic climate change. Renewable energy sources play a vital role in securing sustainable energy with lower emissions [ 10 ]. It is already accepted that renewable energy technologies might significantly cover the electricity demand and reduce emissions. In recent years, the country has developed a sustainable path for its energy supply. Awareness of saving energy has been promoted among citizens to increase the use of solar, wind, biomass, waste, and hydropower energies. It is evident that clean energy is less harmful and often cheaper. India is aiming to attain 175 GW of renewable energy which would consist of 100 GW from solar energy, 10 GW from bio-power, 60 GW from wind power, and 5 GW from small hydropower plants by the year 2022 [ 11 ]. Investors have promised to achieve more than 270 GW, which is significantly above the ambitious targets. The promises are as follows: 58 GW by foreign companies, 191 GW by private companies, 18 GW by private sectors, and 5 GW by the Indian Railways [ 12 ]. Recent estimates show that in 2047, solar potential will be more than 750 GW and wind potential will be 410 GW [ 13 , 14 ]. To reach the ambitious targets of generating 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, it is essential that the government creates 330,000 new jobs and livelihood opportunities [ 15 , 16 ].

A mixture of push policies and pull mechanisms, accompanied by particular strategies should promote the development of renewable energy technologies. Advancement in technology, proper regulatory policies [ 17 ], tax deduction, and attempts in efficiency enhancement due to research and development (R&D) [ 18 ] are some of the pathways to conservation of energy and environment that should guarantee that renewable resource bases are used in a cost-effective and quick manner. Hence, strategies to promote investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector along with jobs for the unskilled workers, technicians, and contractors are discussed. This article also manifests technological and financial initiatives [ 19 ], policy and regulatory framework, as well as training and educational initiatives [ 20 , 21 ] launched by the government for the growth and development of renewable energy sources. The development of renewable technology has encountered explicit obstacles, and thus, there is a need to discuss these barriers. Additionally, it is also vital to discover possible solutions to overcome these barriers, and hence, proper recommendations have been suggested for the steady growth of renewable power [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Given the enormous potential of renewables in the country, coherent policy measures and an investor-friendly administration might be the key drivers for India to become a global leader in clean and green energy.

Projection of global primary energy consumption

An energy source is a necessary element of socio-economic development. The increasing economic growth of developing nations in the last decades has caused an accelerated increase in energy consumption. This trend is anticipated to grow [ 25 ]. A prediction of future power consumption is essential for the investigation of adequate environmental and economic policies [ 26 ]. Likewise, an outlook to future power consumption helps to determine future investments in renewable energy. Energy supply and security have not only increased the essential issues for the development of human society but also for their global political and economic patterns [ 27 ]. Hence, international comparisons are helpful to identify past, present, and future power consumption.

Table 1 shows the primary energy consumption of the world, based on the BP Energy Outlook 2018 reports. In 2016, India’s overall energy consumption was 724 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) and is expected to rise to 1921 Mtoe by 2040 with an average growth rate of 4.2% per annum. Energy consumption of various major countries comprises commercially traded fuels and modern renewables used to produce power. In 2016, India was the fourth largest energy consumer in the world after China, the USA, and the Organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD) in Europe [ 29 ].

The projected estimation of global energy consumption demonstrates that energy consumption in India is continuously increasing and retains its position even in 2035/2040 [ 28 ]. The increase in India’s energy consumption will push the country’s share of global energy demand to 11% by 2040 from 5% in 2016. Emerging economies such as China, India, or Brazil have experienced a process of rapid industrialization, have increased their share in the global economy, and are exporting enormous volumes of manufactured products to developed countries. This shift of economic activities among nations has also had consequences concerning the country’s energy use [ 30 ].

Projected primary energy consumption in India

The size and growth of a country’s population significantly affects the demand for energy. With 1.368 billion citizens, India is ranked second, of the most populous countries as of January 2019 [ 31 ]. The yearly growth rate is 1.18% and represents almost 17.74% of the world’s population. The country is expected to have more than 1.383 billion, 1.512 billion, 1.605 billion, 1.658 billion people by the end of 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050, respectively. Each year, India adds a higher number of people to the world than any other nation and the specific population of some of the states in India is equal to the population of many countries.

The growth of India’s energy consumption will be the fastest among all significant economies by 2040, with coal meeting most of this demand followed by renewable energy. Renewables became the second most significant source of domestic power production, overtaking gas and then oil, by 2020. The demand for renewables in India will have a tremendous growth of 256 Mtoe in 2040 from 17 Mtoe in 2016, with an annual increase of 12%, as shown in Table 2 .

Table 3 shows the primary energy consumption of renewables for the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) from 2016 to 2040. India consumed around 17 Mtoe of renewable energy in 2016, and this will be 256 Mtoe in 2040. It is probable that India’s energy consumption will grow fastest among all major economies by 2040, with coal contributing most in meeting this demand followed by renewables. The percentage share of renewable consumption in 2016 was 2% and is predicted to increase by 13% by 2040.

How renewable energy sources contribute to the energy demand in India

Even though India has achieved a fast and remarkable economic growth, energy is still scarce. Strong economic growth in India is escalating the demand for energy, and more energy sources are required to cover this demand. At the same time, due to the increasing population and environmental deterioration, the country faces the challenge of sustainable development. The gap between demand and supply of power is expected to rise in the future [ 32 ]. Table 4 presents the power supply status of the country from 2009–2010 to 2018–2019 (until October 2018). In 2018, the energy demand was 1,212,134 GWh, and the availability was 1,203,567 GWh, i.e., a deficit of − 0.7% [ 33 ].

According to the Load generation and Balance Report (2016–2017) of the Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA), the electrical energy demand for 2021–2022 is anticipated to be at least 1915 terawatt hours (TWh), with a peak electric demand of 298 GW [ 34 ]. Increasing urbanization and rising income levels are responsible for an increased demand for electrical appliances, i.e., an increased demand for electricity in the residential sector. The increased demand in materials for buildings, transportation, capital goods, and infrastructure is driving the industrial demand for electricity. An increased mechanization and the shift to groundwater irrigation across the country is pushing the pumping and tractor demand in the agriculture sector, and hence the large diesel and electricity demand. The penetration of electric vehicles and the fuel switch to electric and induction cook stoves will drive the electricity demand in the other sectors shown in Table 5 .

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a quarter of India’s energy demand can be met with renewable energy. The country could potentially increase its share of renewable power generation to over one-third by 2030 [ 35 ].

Table 6 presents the estimated contribution of renewable energy sources to the total energy demand. MoP along with CEA in its draft national electricity plan for 2016 anticipated that with 175 GW of installed capacity of renewable power by 2022, the expected electricity generation would be 327 billion units (BUs), which would contribute to 1611 BU energy requirements. This indicates that 20.3% of the energy requirements would be fulfilled by renewable energy by 2022 and 24.2% by 2027 [ 36 ]. Figure 1 shows the ambitious new target for the share of renewable energy in India’s electricity consumption set by MoP. As per the order of revised RPO (Renewable Purchase Obligations, legal act of June 2018), the country has a target of a 21% share of renewable energy in its total electricity consumption by March 2022. In 2014, the same goal was at 15% and increased to 21% by 2018. It is India’s goal to reach 40% renewable sources by 2030.

figure 1

Target share of renewable energy in India’s power consumption

Estimated renewable energy potential in India

The estimated potential of wind power in the country during 1995 [ 37 ] was found to be 20,000 MW (20 GW), solar energy was 5 × 10 15 kWh/pa, bioenergy was 17,000 MW, bagasse cogeneration was 8000 MW, and small hydropower was 10,000 MW. For 2006, the renewable potential was estimated as 85,000 MW with wind 4500 MW, solar 35 MW, biomass/bioenergy 25,000 MW, and small hydropower of 15,000 MW [ 38 ]. According to the annual report of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for 2017–2018, the estimated potential of wind power was 302.251 GW (at 100-m mast height), of small hydropower 19.749 GW, biomass power 17.536 GW, bagasse cogeneration 5 GW, waste to energy (WTE) 2.554 GW, and solar 748.990 GW. The estimated total renewable potential amounted to 1096.080 GW [ 39 ] assuming 3% wasteland, which is shown in Table 7 . India is a tropical country and receives significant radiation, and hence the solar potential is very high [ 40 , 41 , 42 ].

Gross installed capacity of renewable energy in India

As of June 2018 reports, the country intends to reach 225 GW of renewable power capacity by 2022 exceeding the target of 175 GW pledged during the Paris Agreement. The sector is the fourth most attractive renewable energy market in the world. As in October 2018, India ranked fifth in installed renewable energy capacity [ 43 ].

Gross installed capacity of renewable energy—according to region

Table 8 lists the cumulative installed capacity of both conventional and renewable energy sources. The cumulative installed capacity of renewable sources as on the 31 st of December 2018 was 74081.66 MW. Renewable energy (small hydropower, wind, biomass, WTE, solar) accounted for an approximate 21% share of the cumulative installed power capacity, and the remaining 78.791% originated from other conventional sources (coal, gas diesel, nuclear, and large hydropower) [ 44 ]. The best regions for renewable energy are the southern states that have the highest solar irradiance and wind in the country. When renewable energy alone is considered for analysis, the Southern region covers 49.121% of the cumulative installed renewable capacity, followed by the Western region (29.742%), the Northern region (18.890%), the Eastern region (1.836%), the North-Easter region 0.394%, and the Islands (0.017%). As far as conventional energy is concerned, the Western region with 33.452% ranks first and is followed by the Northern region with 28.484%, the Southern region (24.967%), the Eastern region (11.716%), the Northern-Eastern (1.366%), and the Islands (0.015%).

Gross installed capacity of renewable energy—according to ownership

State government, central government, and private players drive the Indian energy sector. The private sector leads the way in renewable energy investment. Table 9 shows the installed gross renewable energy and conventional energy capacity (percentage)—ownership wise. It is evident from Fig. 2 that 95% of the installed renewable capacity derives from private companies, 2% from the central government, and 3% from the state government. The top private companies in the field of non-conventional energy generation are Tata Power Solar, Suzlon, and ReNew Power. Tata Power Solar System Limited are the most significant integrated solar power players in the country, Suzlon realizes wind energy projects, and ReNew Power Ventures operate with solar and wind power.

figure 2

Gross renewable energy installed capacity (percentage)—Ownership wise as per the 31.12.2018 [ 43 ]

Gross installed capacity of renewable energy—state wise

Table 10 shows the installed capacity of cumulative renewable energy (state wise), out of the total installed capacity of 74,081.66 MW, where Karnataka ranks first with 12,953.24 MW (17.485%), Tamilnadu second with 11,934.38 MW (16%), Maharashtra third with 9283.78 MW (12.532%), Gujarat fourth with 10.641 MW (10.641%), and Rajasthan fifth with 7573.86 MW (10.224%). These five states cover almost 66.991% of the installed capacity of total renewable. Other prominent states are Andhra Pradesh (9.829%), Madhya Pradesh (5.819%), Telangana (5.137%), and Uttar Pradesh (3.879%). These nine states cover almost 91.655%.

Gross installed capacity of renewable energy—according to source

Under union budget of India 2018–2019, INR 3762 crore (USD 581.09 million), was allotted for grid-interactive renewable power schemes and projects. As per the 31.12.2018, the installed capacity of total renewable power (excluding large hydropower) in the country amounted to 74.08166 GW. Around 9.363 GW of solar energy, 1.766 GW of wind, 0.105 GW of small hydropower (SHP), and biomass power of 8.7 GW capacity were added in 2017–2018. Table 11 shows the installed capacity of renewable energy over the last 10 years until the 31.12.2018. Wind energy continues to dominate the countries renewable energy industry, accounting for over 47% of cumulative installed renewable capacity (35,138.15 MW), followed by solar power of 34% (25,212.26 MW), biomass power/cogeneration of 12% (9075.5 MW), and small hydropower of 6% (4517.45 MW). In the renewable energy country attractiveness index (RECAI) of 2018, India ranked in fourth position. The installed renewable energy production capacity has grown at an accelerated pace over the preceding few years, posting a CAGR of 19.78% between 2014 and 2018 [ 45 ] .

Estimation of the installed capacity of renewable energy

Table 12 gives the share of installed cumulative renewable energy capacity, in comparison with the installed conventional energy capacity. In 2022 and 2032, the installed renewable energy capacity will account for 32% and 35%, respectively [ 46 , 47 ]. The most significant renewable capacity expansion program in the world is being taken up by India. The government is preparing to boost the percentage of clean energy through a tremendous push in renewables, as discussed in the subsequent sections.

Gross electricity generation from renewable energy in India

The overall generation (including the generation from grid-connected renewable sources) in the country has grown exponentially. Between 2014–2015 and 2015–2016, it achieved 1110.458 BU and 1173.603 BU, respectively. The same was recorded with 1241.689 BU and 1306.614 BU during 2015–2016 and 1306.614 BU from 2016–2017 and 2017–2018, respectively. Figure 3 indicates that the annual renewable power production increased faster than the conventional power production. The rise accounted for 6.47% in 2015–2016 and 24.88% in 2017–2018, respectively. Table 13 compares the energy generation from traditional sources with that from renewable sources. Remarkably, the energy generation from conventional sources reached 811.143 BU and from renewable sources 9.860 BU in 2010 compared to 1.206.306 BU and 88.945 BU in 2017, respectively [ 48 ]. It is observed that the price of electricity production using renewable technologies is higher than that for conventional generation technologies, but is likely to fall with increasing experience in the techniques involved [ 49 ].

figure 3

The annual growth in power generation as per the 30th of November 2018

Gross electricity generation from renewable energy—according to regions

Table 14 shows the gross electricity generation from renewable energy-region wise. It is noted that the highest renewable energy generation derives from the southern region, followed by the western part. As of November 2018, 50.33% of energy generation was obtained from the southern area and 29.37%, 18.05%, 2%, and 0.24% from Western, Northern, North-Eastern Areas, and the Island, respectively.

Gross electricity generation from renewable energy—according to states

Table 15 shows the gross electricity generation from renewable energy—region-wise. It is observed that the highest renewable energy generation was achieved from Karnataka (16.57%), Tamilnadu (15.82%), Andhra Pradesh (11.92%), and Gujarat (10.87%) as per November 2018. While adding four years from 2015–2016 to 2018–2019 Tamilnadu [ 50 ] remains in the first position followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Gross electricity generation from renewable energy—according to sources

Table 16 shows the gross electricity generation from renewable energy—source-wise. It can be concluded from the table that the wind-based energy generation as per 2017–2018 is most prominent with 51.71%, followed by solar energy (25.40%), Bagasse (11.63%), small hydropower (7.55%), biomass (3.34%), and WTE (0.35%). There has been a constant increase in the generation of all renewable sources from 2014–2015 to date. Wind energy, as always, was the highest contributor to the total renewable power production. The percentage of solar energy produced in the overall renewable power production comes next to wind and is typically reduced during the monsoon months. The definite improvement in wind energy production can be associated with a “good” monsoon. Cyclonic action during these months also facilitates high-speed winds. Monsoon winds play a significant part in the uptick in wind power production, especially in the southern states of the country.

Estimation of gross electricity generation from renewable energy

Table 17 shows an estimation of gross electricity generation from renewable energy based on the 2015 report of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) [ 51 ]. It is predicted that the share of renewable power will be 10.2% by 2022, but renewable power technologies contributed a record of 13.4% to the cumulative power production in India as of the 31st of August 2018. The power ministry report shows that India generated 122.10 TWh and out of the total electricity produced, renewables generated 16.30 TWh as on the 31st of August 2018. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation report, it is anticipated that by the year 2040, around 49% of total electricity will be produced using renewable energy.

Current achievements in renewable energy 2017–2018

India cares for the planet and has taken a groundbreaking journey in renewable energy through the last 4 years [ 52 , 53 ]. A dedicated ministry along with financial and technical institutions have helped India in the promotion of renewable energy and diversification of its energy mix. The country is engaged in expanding the use of clean energy sources and has already undertaken several large-scale sustainable energy projects to ensure a massive growth of green energy.

1. India doubled its renewable power capacity in the last 4 years. The cumulative renewable power capacity in 2013–2014 reached 35,500 MW and rose to 70,000 MW in 2017–2018.

2. India stands in the fourth and sixth position regarding the cumulative installed capacity in the wind and solar sector, respectively. Furthermore, its cumulative installed renewable capacity stands in fifth position globally as of the 31st of December 2018.

3. As said above, the cumulative renewable energy capacity target for 2022 is given as 175 GW. For 2017–2018, the cumulative installed capacity amounted to 70 GW, the capacity under implementation is 15 GW and the tendered capacity was 25 GW. The target, the installed capacity, the capacity under implementation, and the tendered capacity are shown in Fig. 4 .

4. There is tremendous growth in solar power. The cumulative installed solar capacity increased by more than eight times in the last 4 years from 2.630 GW (2013–2014) to 22 GW (2017–2018). As of the 31st of December 2018, the installed capacity amounted to 25.2122 GW.

5. The renewable electricity generated in 2017–2018 was 101839 BUs.

6. The country published competitive bidding guidelines for the production of renewable power. It also discovered the lowest tariff and transparent bidding method and resulted in a notable decrease in per unit cost of renewable energy.

7. In 21 states, there are 41 solar parks with a cumulative capacity of more than 26,144 MW that have already been approved by the MNRE. The Kurnool solar park was set up with 1000 MW; and with 2000 MW the largest solar park of Pavagada (Karnataka) is currently under installation.

8. The target for solar power (ground mounted) for 2018–2019 is given as 10 GW, and solar power (Rooftop) as 1 GW.

9. MNRE doubled the target for solar parks (projects of 500 MW or more) from 20 to 40 GW.

10. The cumulative installed capacity of wind power increased by 1.6 times in the last 4 years. In 2013–2014, it amounted to 21 GW, from 2017 to 2018 it amounted to 34 GW, and as of 31st of December 2018, it reached 35.138 GW. This shows that achievements were completed in wind power use.

11. An offshore wind policy was announced. Thirty-four companies (most significant global and domestic wind power players) competed in the “expression of interest” (EoI) floated on the plan to set up India’s first mega offshore wind farm with a capacity of 1 GW.

12. 682 MW small hydropower projects were installed during the last 4 years along with 600 watermills (mechanical applications) and 132 projects still under development.

13. MNRE is implementing green energy corridors to expand the transmission system. 9400 km of green energy corridors are completed or under implementation. The cost spent on it was INR 10141 crore (101,410 Million INR = 1425.01 USD). Furthermore, the total capacity of 19,000 MVA substations is now planned to be complete by March 2020.

14. MNRE is setting up solar pumps (off-grid application), where 90% of pumps have been set up as of today and between 2014–2015 and 2017–2018. Solar street lights were more than doubled. Solar home lighting systems have been improved by around 1.5 times. More than 2,575,000 solar lamps have been distributed to students. The details are illustrated in Fig. 5 .

15. From 2014–2015 to 2017–2018, more than 2.5 lakh (0.25 million) biogas plants were set up for cooking in rural homes to enable families by providing them access to clean fuel.

16. New policy initiatives revised the tariff policy mandating purchase and generation obligations (RPO and RGO). Four wind and solar inter-state transmission were waived; charges were planned, the RPO trajectory for 2022 and renewable energy policy was finalized.

17. Expressions of interest (EoI) were invited for installing solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacities associated with the guaranteed off-take of 20 GW. EoI indicated 10 GW floating solar energy plants.

18. Policy for the solar-wind hybrid was announced. Tender for setting up 2 GW solar-wind hybrid systems in existing projects was invited.

19. To facilitate R&D in renewable power technology, a National lab policy on testing, standardization, and certification was announced by the MNRE.

20. The Surya Mitra program was conducted to train college graduates in the installation, commissioning, operations, and management of solar panels. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) headquarters in India (Gurgaon) will be a new commencement for solar energy improvement in India.

21. The renewable sector has become considerably more attractive for foreign and domestic investors, and the country expects to attract up to USD 80 billion in the next 4 years from 2018–2019 to 2021–2022.

22. The solar power capacity expanded by more than eight times from 2.63 GW in 2013–2014 to 22 GW in 2017–2018.

23. A bidding for 115 GW renewable energy projects up to March 2020 was announced.

24. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) acting for system/components of solar PV was established.

25. To recognize and encourage innovative ideas in renewable energy sectors, the Government provides prizes and awards. Creative ideas/concepts should lead to prototype development. The Name of the award is “Abhinav Soch-Nayi Sambhawanaye,” which means Innovative ideas—New possibilities.

figure 4

Renewable energy target, installed capacity, under implementation and tendered [ 52 ]

figure 5

Off-grid solar applications [ 52 ]

Solar energy

Under the National Solar Mission, the MNRE has updated the objective of grid-connected solar power projects from 20 GW by the year 2021–2022 to 100 GW by the year 2021–2022. In 2008–2009, it reached just 6 MW. The “Made in India” initiative to promote domestic manufacturing supported this great height in solar installation capacity. Currently, India has the fifth highest solar installed capacity worldwide. By the 31st of December 2018, solar energy had achieved 25,212.26 MW against the target of 2022, and a further 22.8 GW of capacity has been tendered out or is under current implementation. MNRE is preparing to bid out the remaining solar energy capacity every year for the periods 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 so that bidding may contribute with 100 GW capacity additions by March 2020. In this way, 2 years for the completion of projects would remain. Tariffs will be determined through the competitive bidding process (reverse e-auction) to bring down tariffs significantly. The lowest solar tariff was identified to be INR 2.44 per kWh in July 2018. In 2010, solar tariffs amounted to INR 18 per kWh. Over 100,000 lakh (10,000 million) acres of land had been classified for several planned solar parks, out of which over 75,000 acres had been obtained. As of November 2018, 47 solar parks of a total capacity of 26,694 MW were established. The aggregate capacity of 4195 MW of solar projects has been commissioned inside various solar parks (floating solar power). Table 18 shows the capacity addition compared to the target. It indicates that capacity addition increased exponentially.

Wind energy

As of the 31st of December 2018, the total installed capacity of India amounted to 35,138.15 MW compared to a target of 60 GW by 2022. India is currently in fourth position in the world for installed capacity of wind power. Moreover, around 9.4 GW capacity has been tendered out or is under current implementation. The MNRE is preparing to bid out for A 10 GW wind energy capacity every year for 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, so that bidding will allow for 60 GW capacity additions by March 2020, giving the remaining two years for the accomplishment of the projects. The gross wind energy potential of the country now reaches 302 GW at a 100 m above-ground level. The tariff administration has been changed from feed-in-tariff (FiT) to the bidding method for capacity addition. On the 8th of December 2017, the ministry published guidelines for a tariff-based competitive bidding rule for the acquisition of energy from grid-connected wind energy projects. The developed transparent process of bidding lowered the tariff for wind power to its lowest level ever. The development of the wind industry has risen in a robust ecosystem ensuring project execution abilities and a manufacturing base. State-of-the-art technologies are now available for the production of wind turbines. All the major global players in wind power have their presence in India. More than 12 different companies manufacture more than 24 various models of wind turbines in India. India exports wind turbines and components to the USA, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and other Asian countries. Around 70–80% of the domestic production has been accomplished with strong domestic manufacturing companies. Table 19 lists the capacity addition compared to the target for the capacity addition. Furthermore, electricity generation from the wind-based capacity has improved, even though there was a slowdown of new capacity in the first half of 2018–2019 and 2017–2018.

The national energy storage mission—2018

The country is working toward a National Energy Storage Mission. A draft of the National Energy Storage Mission was proposed in February 2018 and initiated to develop a comprehensive policy and regulatory framework. During the last 4 years, projects included in R&D worth INR 115.8 million (USD 1.66 million) in the domain of energy storage have been launched, and a corpus of INR 48.2 million (USD 0.7 million) has been issued. India’s energy storage mission will provide an opportunity for globally competitive battery manufacturing. By increasing the battery manufacturing expertise and scaling up its national production capacity, the country can make a substantial economic contribution in this crucial sector. The mission aims to identify the cumulative battery requirements, total market size, imports, and domestic manufacturing. Table 20 presents the economic opportunity from battery manufacturing given by the National Institution for Transforming India, also called NITI Aayog, which provides relevant technical advice to central and state governments while designing strategic and long-term policies and programs for the Indian government.

Small hydropower—3-year action agenda—2017

Hydro projects are classified as large hydro, small hydro (2 to 25 MW), micro-hydro (up to 100 kW), and mini-hydropower (100 kW to 2 MW) projects. Whereas the estimated potential of SHP is 20 GW, the 2022 target for India in SHP is 5 GW. As of the 31st of December 2018, the country has achieved 4.5 GW and this production is constantly increasing. The objective, which was planned to be accomplished through infrastructure project grants and tariff support, was included in the NITI Aayog’s 3-year action agenda (2017–2018 to 2019–2020), which was published on the 1st of August 2017. MNRE is providing central financial assistance (CFA) to set up small/micro hydro projects both in the public and private sector. For the identification of new potential locations, surveys and comprehensive project reports are elaborated, and financial support for the renovation and modernization of old projects is provided. The Ministry has established a dedicated completely automatic supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)—based on a hydraulic turbine R&D laboratory at the Alternate Hydro Energy Center (AHEC) at IIT Roorkee. The establishment cost for the lab was INR 40 crore (400 million INR, 95.62 Million USD), and the laboratory will serve as a design and validation facility. It investigates hydro turbines and other hydro-mechanical devices adhering to national and international standards [ 54 , 55 ]. Table 21 shows the target and achievements from 2007–2008 to 2018–2019.

National policy regarding biofuels—2018

Modernization has generated an opportunity for a stable change in the use of bioenergy in India. MNRE amended the current policy for biomass in May 2018. The policy presents CFA for projects using biomass such as agriculture-based industrial residues, wood produced through energy plantations, bagasse, crop residues, wood waste generated from industrial operations, and weeds. Under the policy, CFA will be provided to the projects at the rate of INR 2.5 million (USD 35,477.7) per MW for bagasse cogeneration and INR 5 million (USD 70,955.5) per MW for non-bagasse cogeneration. The MNRE also announced a memorandum in November 2018 considering the continuation of the concessional customs duty certificate (CCDC) to set up projects for the production of energy using non-conventional materials such as bio-waste, agricultural, forestry, poultry litter, agro-industrial, industrial, municipal, and urban wastes. The government recently established the National policy on biofuels in August 2018. The MNRE invited an expression of interest (EOI) to estimate the potential of biomass energy and bagasse cogeneration in the country. A program to encourage the promotion of biomass-based cogeneration in sugar mills and other industries was also launched in May 2018. Table 22 shows how the biomass power target and achievements are expected to reach 10 GW of the target of 2022 before the end of 2019.

The new national biogas and organic manure program (NNBOMP)—2018

The National biogas and manure management programme (NBMMP) was launched in 2012–2013. The primary objective was to provide clean gaseous fuel for cooking, where the remaining slurry was organic bio-manure which is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Further, 47.5 lakh (4.75 million) cumulative biogas plants were completed in 2014, and increased to 49.8 lakh (4.98 million). During 2017–2018, the target was to establish 1.10 lakh biogas plants (1.10 million), but resulted in 0.15 lakh (0.015 million). In this way, the cost of refilling the gas cylinders with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was greatly reduced. Likewise, tons of wood/trees were protected from being axed, as wood is traditionally used as a fuel in rural and semi-urban households. Biogas is a viable alternative to traditional cooking fuels. The scheme generated employment for almost 300 skilled laborers for setting up the biogas plants. By 30th of May 2018, the Ministry had issued guidelines for the implementation of the NNBOMP during the period 2017–2018 to 2019–2020 [ 56 ].

The off-grid and decentralized solar photovoltaic application program—2018

The program deals with the energy demand through the deployment of solar lanterns, solar streetlights, solar home lights, and solar pumps. The plan intended to reach 118 MWp of off-grid PV capacity by 2020. The sanctioning target proposed outlay was 50 MWp by 2017–2018 and 68 MWp by 2019–2020. The total estimated cost amounted to INR 1895 crore (18950 Million INR, 265.547 million USD), and the ministry wanted to support 637 crores (6370 million INR, 89.263 million USD) by its central finance assistance. Solar power plants with a 25 KWp size were promoted in those areas where grid power does not reach households or is not reliable. Public service institutions, schools, panchayats, hostels, as well as police stations will benefit from this scheme. Solar study lamps were also included as a component in the program. Thirty percent of financial assistance was provided to solar power plants. Every student should bear 15% of the lamp cost, and the ministry wanted to support the remaining 85%. As of October 2018, lantern and lamps of more than 40 Lakhs (4 million), home lights of 16.72 lakhs (1.672 million) number, street lights of 6.40 lakhs (0.64 million), solar pumps of 1.96 lakhs (0.196 million), and 187.99 MWp stand-alone devices had been installed [ 57 , 58 ].

Major government initiatives for renewable energy

Technological initiatives.

The Technology Development and Innovation Policy (TDIP) released on the 6th of October 2017 was endeavored to promote research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) in the renewable energy sector [ 59 ]. RD&D intended to evaluate resources, progress in technology, commercialization, and the presentation of renewable energy technologies across the country. It aimed to produce renewable power devices and systems domestically. The evaluation of standards and resources, processes, materials, components, products, services, and sub-systems was carried out through RD&D. A development of the market, efficiency improvements, cost reductions, and a promotion of commercialization (scalability and bankability) were achieved through RD&D. Likewise, the percentage of renewable energy in the total electricity mix made it self-sustainable, industrially competitive, and profitable through RD&D. RD&D also supported technology development and demonstration in wind, solar, wind-solar hybrid, biofuel, biogas, hydrogen fuel cells, and geothermal energies. RD&D supported the R&D units of educational institutions, industries, and non-government organizations (NGOs). Sharing expertise, information, as well as institutional mechanisms for collaboration was realized by use of the technology development program (TDP). The various people involved in this program were policymakers, industrial innovators, associated stakeholders and departments, researchers, and scientists. Renowned R&D centers in India are the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurgaon, the National Institute of Bio-Energy (NIBE), Kapurthala, and the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), Chennai. The TDP strategy encouraged the exploration of innovative approaches and possibilities to obtain long-term targets. Likewise, it efficiently supported the transformation of knowledge into technology through a well-established monitoring system for the development of renewable technology that meets the electricity needs of India. The research center of excellence approved the TDI projects, which were funded to strengthen R&D. Funds were provided for conducting training and workshops. The MNRE is now preparing a database of R&D accomplishments in the renewable energy sector.

The Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) program seeks to develop engineering and technology (prototype/process development) on a national scale. IMPRINT is steered by the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and Indian Institute of science (IISCs). The expansion covers all areas of engineering and technology including renewable technology. The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) finances up to 50% of the total cost of the project. The remaining costs of the project are financed by the ministry (MNRE) via the RD&D program for renewable projects. Currently (2018–2019), five projects are under implementation in the area of solar thermal systems, storage for SPV, biofuel, and hydrogen and fuel cells which are funded by the MNRE (36.9 million INR, 0.518426 Million USD) and IMPRINT. Development of domestic technology and quality control are promoted through lab policies that were published on the 7th of December 2017. Lab policies were implemented to test, standardize, and certify renewable energy products and projects. They supported the improvement of the reliability and quality of the projects. Furthermore, Indian test labs are strengthened in line with international standards and practices through well-established lab policies. From 2015, the MNRE has provided “The New and Renewable Energy Young Scientist’s Award” to researchers/scientists who demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in renewable R&D.

Financial initiatives

One hundred percent financial assistance is granted by the MNRE to the government and NGOs and 50% financial support to the industry. The policy framework was developed to guide the identification of the project, the formulation, monitoring appraisal, approval, and financing. Between 2012 and 2017, a 4467.8 million INR, 62.52 Million USD) support was granted by the MNRE. The MNRE wanted to double the budget for technology development efforts in renewable energy for the current three-year plan period. Table 23 shows that the government is spending more and more for the development of the renewable energy sector. Financial support was provided to R&D projects. Exceptional consideration was given to projects that worked under extreme and hazardous conditions. Furthermore, financial support was applied to organizing awareness programs, demonstrations, training, workshops, surveys, assessment studies, etc. Innovative approaches will be rewarded with cash prizes. The winners will be presented with a support mechanism for transforming their ideas and prototypes into marketable commodities such as start-ups for entrepreneur development. Innovative projects will be financed via start-up support mechanisms, which will include an investment contract with investors. The MNRE provides funds to proposals for investigating policies and performance analyses related to renewable energy.

Technology validation and demonstration projects and other innovative projects with regard to renewables received a financial assistance of 50% of the project cost. The CFA applied to partnerships with industry and private institutions including engineering colleges. Private academic institutions, accredited by a government accreditation body, were also eligible to receive a 50% support. The concerned industries and institutions should meet the remaining 50% expenditure. The MNRE allocated an INR 3762.50 crore (INR 37625 million, 528.634 million USD) for the grid interactive renewable sources and an INR 1036.50 crore (INR 10365 million, 145.629 million USD) for off-grid/distributed and decentralized renewable power for the year 2018–2019 [ 60 ]. The MNRE asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), attempting to build renewable power projects under “priority sector lending” (priority lending should be done for renewable energy projects and without any limit) and to eliminate the obstacles in the financing of renewable energy projects. In July 2018, the Ministry of Finance announced that it would impose a 25% safeguard duty on solar panels and modules imported from China and Malaysia for 1 year. The quantum of tax might be reduced to 20% for the next 6 months, and 15% for the following 6 months.

Policy and regulatory framework initiatives

The regulatory interventions for the development of renewable energy sources are (a) tariff determination, (b) defining RPO, (c) promoting grid connectivity, and (d) promoting the expansion of the market.

Tariff policy amendments—2018

On the 30th of May 2018, the MoP released draft amendments to the tariff policy. The objective of these policies was to promote electricity generation from renewables. MoP in consultation with MNRE announced the long-term trajectory for RPO, which is represented in Table 24 . The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) achieved a favorable and neutral/off-putting effect in the growth of the renewable power sector through their RPO regulations in consultation with the MNRE. On the 25th of May 2018, the MNRE created an RPO compliance cell to reach India’s solar and wind power goals. Due to the absence of implementation of RPO regulations, several states in India did not meet their specified RPO objectives. The cell will operate along with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and SERCs to obtain monthly statements on RPO compliance. It will also take up non-compliance associated concerns with the relevant officials.

Repowering policy—2016

On the 09th of August 2016, India announced a “repowering policy” for wind energy projects. An about 27 GW turnaround was possible according to the policy. This policy supports the replacing of aging wind turbines with more modern and powerful units (fewer, larger, taller) to raise the level of electricity generation. This policy seeks to create a simplified framework and to promote an optimized use of wind power resources. It is mandatory because the up to the year 2000 installed wind turbines were below 500 kW in sites where high wind potential might be achieved. It will be possible to obtain 3000 MW from the same location once replacements are in place. The policy was initially applied for the one MW installed capacity of wind turbines, and the MNRE will extend the repowering policy to other projects in the future based on experience. Repowering projects were implemented by the respective state nodal agencies/organizations that were involved in wind energy promotion in their states. The policy provided an exception from the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for wind farms/turbines undergoing repowering because they could not fulfill the requirements according to the PPA during repowering. The repowering projects may avail accelerated depreciation (AD) benefit or generation-based incentive (GBI) due to the conditions appropriate to new wind energy projects [ 61 ].

The wind-solar hybrid policy—2018

On the 14th of May 2018, the MNRE announced a national wind-solar hybrid policy. This policy supported new projects (large grid-connected wind-solar photovoltaic hybrid systems) and the hybridization of the already available projects. These projects tried to achieve an optimal and efficient use of transmission infrastructure and land. Better grid stability was achieved and the variability in renewable power generation was reduced. The best part of the policy intervention was that which supported the hybridization of existing plants. The tariff-based transparent bidding process was included in the policy. Regulatory authorities should formulate the necessary standards and regulations for hybrid systems. The policy also highlighted a battery storage in hybrid projects for output optimization and variability reduction [ 62 ].

The national offshore wind energy policy—2015

The National Offshore Wind Policy was released in October 2015. On the 19th of June 2018, the MNRE announced a medium-term target of 5 GW by 2022 and a long-term target of 30 GW by 2030. The MNRE called expressions of Interest (EoI) for the first 1 GW of offshore wind (the last date was 08.06.2018). The EoI site is located in Pipavav port at the Gulf of Khambhat at a distance of 23 km facilitating offshore wind (FOWIND) where the consortium deployed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in November 2017). Pipavav port is situated off the coast of Gujarat. The MNRE had planned to install more such equipment in the states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. On the 14 th of December 2018, the MNRE, through the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), called tender for offshore environmental impact assessment studies at intended LIDAR points at the Gulf of Mannar, off the coast of Tamil Nadu for offshore wind measurement. The timeline for initiatives was to firstly add 500 MW by 2022, 2 to 2.5 GW by 2027, and eventually reaching 5 GW between 2028 and 2032. Even though the installation of large wind power turbines in open seas is a challenging task, the government has endeavored to promote this offshore sector. Offshore wind energy would add its contribution to the already existing renewable energy mix for India [ 63 ] .

The feed-in tariff policy—2018

On the 28th of January 2016, the revised tariff policy was notified following the Electricity Act. On the 30th May 2018, the amendment in tariff policy was released. The intentions of this tariff policy are (a) an inexpensive and competitive electricity rate for the consumers; (b) to attract investment and financial viability; (c) to ensure that the perceptions of regulatory risks decrease through predictability, consistency, and transparency of policy measures; (d) development in quality of supply, increased operational efficiency, and improved competition; (e) increase the production of electricity from wind, solar, biomass, and small hydro; (f) peaking reserves that are acceptable in quantity or consistently good in quality or performance of grid operation where variable renewable energy source integration is provided through the promotion of hydroelectric power generation, including pumped storage projects (PSP); (g) to achieve better consumer services through efficient and reliable electricity infrastructure; (h) to supply sufficient and uninterrupted electricity to every level of consumers; and (i) to create adequate capacity, reserves in the production, transmission, and distribution that is sufficient for the reliability of supply of power to customers [ 64 ].

Training and educational initiatives

The MHRD has developed strong renewable energy education and training systems. The National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) develops course modules, and a Modular Employable Skilling program (MES) in its regular 2-year syllabus to include SPV lighting systems, solar thermal systems, SHP, and provides the certificate for seven trades after the completion of a 2-year course. The seven trades are plumber, fitter, carpenter, welder, machinist, and electrician. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) worked out a national skill development policy in 2015. They provide regular training programs to create various job roles in renewable energy along with the MNRE support through a skill council for green jobs (SCGJ), the National Occupational Standards (NOS), and the Qualification Pack (QP). The SCGJ is promoted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the MNRE. The industry partner for the SCGJ is ReNew Power [ 65 , 66 ].

The global status of India in renewable energy

Table 25 shows the RECAI (Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index) report of 40 countries. This report is based on the attractiveness of renewable energy investment and deployment opportunities. RECAI is based on macro vitals such as economic stability, investment climate, energy imperatives such as security and supply, clean energy gap, and affordability. It also includes policy enablement such as political stability and support for renewables. Its emphasis lies on project delivery parameters such as energy market access, infrastructure, and distributed generation, finance, cost and availability, and transaction liquidity. Technology potentials such as natural resources, power take-off attractiveness, potential support, technology maturity, and forecast growth are taken into consideration for ranking. India has moved to the fourth position of the RECAI-2018. Indian solar installations (new large-scale and rooftop solar capacities) in the calendar year 2017 increased exponentially with the addition of 9629 MW, whereas in 2016 it was 4313 MW. The warning of solar import tariffs and conflicts between developers and distribution firms are growing investor concerns [ 67 ]. Figure 6 shows the details of the installed capacity of global renewable energy in 2016 and 2017. Globally, 2017 GW renewable energy was installed in 2016, and in 2017, it increased to 2195 GW. Table 26 shows the total capacity addition of top countries until 2017. The country ranked fifth in renewable power capacity (including hydro energy), renewable power capacity (not including hydro energy) in fourth position, concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) and wind power were also in fourth position [ 68 ].

figure 6

Globally installed capacity of renewable energy in 2017—Global 2018 status report with regard to renewables [ 68 ]

The investment opportunities in renewable energy in India

The investments into renewable energy in India increased by 22% in the first half of 2018 compared to 2017, while the investments in China dropped by 15% during the same period, according to a statement by the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which is shown in Table 27 [ 69 , 70 ]. At this rate, India is expected to overtake China and become the most significant growth market for renewable energy by the end of 2020. The country is eyeing pole position for transformation in renewable energy by reaching 175 GW by 2020. To achieve this target, it is quickly ramping up investments in this sector. The country added more renewable capacity than conventional capacity in 2018 when compared to 2017. India hosted the ISA first official summit on the 11.03.2018 for 121 countries. This will provide a standard platform to work toward the ambitious targets for renewable energy. The summit will emphasize India’s dedication to meet global engagements in a time-bound method. The country is also constructing many sizeable solar power parks comparable to, but larger than, those in China. Half of the earth’s ten biggest solar parks under development are in India.

In 2014, the world largest solar park was the Topaz solar farm in California with a 550 MW facility. In 2015, another operator in California, Solar Star, edged its capacity up to 579 MW. By 2016, India’s Kamuthi Solar Power Project in Tamil Nadu was on top with 648 MW of capacity (set up by the Adani Green Energy, part of the Adani Group, in Tamil Nadu). As of February 2017, the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China was the new leader, with 850 MW of capacity [ 71 ]. Currently, there are 600 MW operating units and 1400 MW units under construction. The Shakti Sthala solar park was inaugurated on 01.03.2018 in Pavagada (Karnataka, India) which is expected to become the globe’s most significant solar park when it accomplishes its full potential of 2 GW. Another large solar park with 1.5 GW is scheduled to be built in the Kadappa region [ 72 ]. The progress in solar power is remarkable and demonstrates real clean energy development on the ground.

The Kurnool ultra-mega solar park generated 800 million units (MU) of energy in October 2018 and saved over 700,000 tons of CO 2 . Rainwater was harvested using a reservoir that helps in cleaning solar panels and supplying water. The country is making remarkable progress in solar energy. The Kamuthi solar farm is cleaned each day by a robotic system. As the Indian economy expands, electricity consumption is forecasted to reach 15,280 TWh in 2040. With the government’s intent, green energy objectives, i.e., the renewable sector, grow considerably in an attractive manner with both foreign and domestic investors. It is anticipated to attract investments of up to USD 80 billion in the subsequent 4 years. The government of India has raised its 175 GW target to 225 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. The competitive benefit is that the country has sun exposure possible throughout the year and has an enormous hydropower potential. India was also listed fourth in the EY renewable energy country attractive index 2018. Sixty solar cities will be built in India as a section of MNRE’s “Solar cities” program.

In a regular auction, reduction in tariffs cost of the projects are the competitive benefits in the country. India accounts for about 4% of the total global electricity generation capacity and has the fourth highest installed capacity of wind energy and the third highest installed capacity of CSP. The solar installation in India erected during 2015–2016, 2016–2017, 2017–2018, and 2018–2019 was 3.01 GW, 5.52 GW, 9.36 GW, and 6.53 GW, respectively. The country aims to add 8.5 GW during 2019–2020. Due to its advantageous location in the solar belt (400 South to 400 North), the country is one of the largest beneficiaries of solar energy with relatively ample availability. An increase in the installed capacity of solar power is anticipated to exceed the installed capacity of wind energy, approaching 100 GW by 2022 from its current levels of 25.21226 GW as of December 2018. Fast falling prices have made Solar PV the biggest market for new investments. Under the Union Budget 2018–2019, a zero import tax on parts used in manufacturing solar panels was launched to provide an advantage to domestic solar panel companies [ 73 ].

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the renewable energy sector of India between April 2000 and June 2018 amounted to USD 6.84 billion according to the report of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). The DIPP was renamed (gazette notification 27.01.2019) the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). It is responsible for the development of domestic trade, retail trade, trader’s welfare including their employees as well as concerns associated with activities in facilitating and supporting business and startups. Since 2014, more than 42 billion USD have been invested in India’s renewable power sector. India reached US$ 7.4 billion in investments in the first half of 2018. Between April 2015 and June 2018, the country received USD 3.2 billion FDI in the renewable sector. The year-wise inflows expanded from USD 776 million in 2015–2016 to USD 783 million in 2016–2017 and USD 1204 million in 2017–2018. Between January to March of 2018, the INR 452 crore (4520 Million INR, 63.3389 million USD) of the FDI had already come in. The country is contributing with financial and promotional incentives that include a capital subsidy, accelerated depreciation (AD), waiver of inter-state transmission charges and losses, viability gap funding (VGF), and FDI up to 100% under the automated track.

The DIPP/DPIIT compiles and manages the data of the FDI equity inflow received in India [ 74 ]. The FDI equity inflow between April 2015 and June 2018 in the renewable sector is illustrated in Fig. 7 . It shows that the 2018–2019 3 months’ FDI equity inflow is half of that of the entire one of 2017–2018. It is evident from the figure that India has well-established FDI equity inflows. The significant FDI investments in the renewable energy sectors are shown in Table 28 . The collaboration between the Asian development bank and Renew Power Ventures private limited with 44.69 million USD ranked first followed by AIRRO Singapore with Diligent power with FDI equity inflow of 44.69 USD million.

figure 7

The FDI equity inflow received between April 2015 and June 2018 in the renewable energy sector [ 73 ]

Strategies to promote investments

Strategies to promote investments (including FDI) by investors in the renewable sector:

Decrease constraints on FDI; provide open, transparent, and dependable conditions for foreign and domestic firms; and include ease of doing business, access to imports, comparatively flexible labor markets, and safeguard of intellectual property rights.

Establish an investment promotion agency (IPA) that targets suitable foreign investors and connects them as a catalyst with the domestic economy. Assist the IPA to present top-notch infrastructure and immediate access to skilled workers, technicians, engineers, and managers that might be needed to attract such investors. Furthermore, it should involve an after-investment care, recognizing the demonstration effects from satisfied investors, the potential for reinvestments, and the potential for cluster-development due to follow-up investments.

It is essential to consider the targeted sector (wind, solar, SPH or biomass, respectively) for which investments are required.

Establish the infrastructure needed for a quality investor, including adequate close-by transport facilities (airport, ports), a sufficient and steady supply of energy, a provision of a sufficiently skilled workforce, the facilities for the vocational training of specialized operators, ideally designed in collaboration with the investor.

Policy and other support mechanisms such as Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) play an influential role in underpinning returns and restricting uncertainties for project developers, indirectly supporting the availability of investment. Investors in renewable energy projects have historically relied on government policies to give them confidence about the costs necessary for electricity produced—and therefore for project revenues. Reassurance of future power costs for project developers is secured by signing a PPA with either a utility or an essential corporate buyer of electricity.

FiT have been the most conventional approach around the globe over the last decade to stimulate investments in renewable power projects. Set by the government concerned, they lay down an electricity tariff that developers of qualifying new projects might anticipate to receive for the resulting electricity over a long interval (15–20 years). These present investors in the tax equity of renewable power projects with a credit that they can manage to offset the tax burden outside in their businesses.

Table 29 presents the 2018 renewable energy investment report, source-wise, by the significant players in renewables according to the report of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Report 2018. As per this report, global investment in renewable energy was USD of 279.8 billion in 2017. The top ten in the total global investments are China (126.1 $BN), the USA (40.5 $BN), Japan (13.4 $BN), India (10.9 $BN), Germany (10.4 $BN), Australia (8.5 $BN), UK (7.6 $BN), Brazil (6.0 $BN), Mexico (6.0 $BN), and Sweden (3.7 $BN) [ 75 ]. This achievement was possible since those countries have well-established strategies for promoting investments [ 76 , 77 ].

The appropriate objectives for renewable power expansion and investments are closely related to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) objectives, the implementation of the NDC, on the road to achieving Paris promises, policy competence, policy reliability, market absorption capacity, and nationwide investment circumstances that are the real purposes for renewable power expansion, which is a significant factor for the investment strategies, as is shown in Table 30 .

The demand for investments for building a Paris-compatible and climate-resilient energy support remains high, particularly in emerging nations. Future investments in energy grids and energy flexibility are of particular significance. The strategies and the comparison chart between China, India, and the USA are presented in Table 31 .

Table 32 shows France in the first place due to overall favorable conditions for renewables, heading the G20 in investment attractiveness of renewables. Germany drops back one spot due to a decline in the quality of the global policy environment for renewables and some insufficiencies in the policy design, as does the UK. Overall, with four European countries on top of the list, Europe, however, directs the way in providing attractive conditions for investing in renewables. Despite high scores for various nations, no single government is yet close to growing a role model. All countries still have significant room for increasing investment demands to deploy renewables at the scale required to reach the Paris objectives. The table shown is based on the Paris compatible long-term vision, the policy environment for renewable energy, the conditions for system integration, the market absorption capacity, and general investment conditions. India moved from the 11th position to the 9th position in overall investments between 2017 and 2018.

A Paris compatible long-term vision includes a de-carbonization plan for the power system, the renewable power ambition, the coal and oil decrease, and the reliability of renewables policies. Direct support policies include medium-term certainty of policy signals, streamlined administrative procedures, ensuring project realization, facilitating the use of produced electricity. Conditions for system integration include system integration-grid codes, system integration-storage promotion, and demand-side management policies. A market absorption capacity includes a prior experience with renewable technologies, a current activity with renewable installations, and a presence of major renewable energy companies. General investment conditions include non-financial determinants, depth of the financial sector as well, as an inflation forecast.

Employment opportunities for citizens in renewable energy in India

Global employment scenario.

According to the 2018 Annual review of the IRENA [ 78 ], global renewable energy employment touched 10.3 million jobs in 2017, an improvement of 5.3% compared with the quantity published in 2016. Many socio-economic advantages derive from renewable power, but employment continues to be exceptionally centralized in a handful of countries, with China, Brazil, the USA, India, Germany, and Japan in the lead. In solar PV employment (3.4 million jobs), China is the leader (65% of PV Jobs) which is followed by Japan, USA, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Germany, Philippines, and Turkey. In biofuels employment (1.9 million jobs), Brazil is the leader (41% of PV Jobs) followed by the USA, Colombia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, China, and India. In wind employment (1.1 million jobs), China is the leader (44% of PV Jobs) followed by Germany, USA, India, UK, Brazil, Denmark, Netherlands, France, and Spain.

Table 33 shows global renewable energy employment in the corresponding technology branches. As in past years, China maintained the most notable number of people employed (3880 million jobs) estimating for 43% of the globe’s total which is shown in Fig. 8 . In India, new solar installations touched a record of 9.6 GW in 2017, efficiently increasing the total installed capacity. The employment in solar PV improved by 36% and reached 164,400 jobs, of which 92,400 represented on-grid use. IRENA determines that the building and installation covered 46% of these jobs, with operations and maintenance (O&M) representing 35% and 19%, individually. India does not produce solar PV because it could be imported from China, which is inexpensive. The market share of domestic companies (Indian supplier to renewable projects) declined from 13% in 2014–2015 to 7% in 2017–2018. If India starts the manufacturing base, more citizens will get jobs in the manufacturing field. India had the world’s fifth most significant additions of 4.1 GW to wind capacity in 2017 and the fourth largest cumulative capacity in 2018. IRENA predicts that jobs in the wind sector stood at 60,500.

figure 8

Renewable energy employment in selected countries [ 79 ]

The jobs in renewables are categorized into technological development, installation/de-installation, operation, and maintenance. Tables 34 , 35 , 36 , and 37 show the wind industry, solar energy, biomass, and small hydro-related jobs in project development, component manufacturing, construction, operations, and education, training, and research. As technology quickly evolves, workers in all areas need to update their skills through continuing training/education or job training, and in several cases could benefit from professional certification. The advantages of moving to renewable energy are evident, and for this reason, the governments are responding positively toward the transformation to clean energy. Renewable energy can be described as the country’s next employment boom. Renewable energy job opportunities can transform rural economy [ 79 , 80 ]. The renewable energy sector might help to reduce poverty by creating better employment. For example, wind power is looking for specialists in manufacturing, project development, and construction and turbine installation as well as financial services, transportation and logistics, and maintenance and operations.

The government is building more renewable energy power plants that will require a workforce. The increasing investments in the renewable energy sector have the potential to provide more jobs than any other fossil fuel industry. Local businesses and renewable sectors will benefit from this change, as income will increase significantly. Many jobs in this sector will contribute to fixed salaries, healthcare benefits, and skill-building opportunities for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. A range of skilled and unskilled jobs are included in all renewable energy technologies, even though most of the positions in the renewable energy industry demand a skilled workforce. The renewable sector employs semi-skilled and unskilled labor in the construction, operations, and maintenance after proper training. Unskilled labor is employed as truck drivers, guards, cleaning, and maintenance. Semi-skilled labor is used to take regular readings from displays. A lack of consistent data on the potential employment impact of renewables expansion makes it particularly hard to assess the quantity of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled personnel that might be needed.

Key findings in renewable energy employment

The findings comprise (a) that the majority of employment in the renewable sector is contract based, and that employees do not benefit from permanent jobs or security. (b) Continuous work in the industry has the potential to decrease poverty. (c) Most poor citizens encounter obstacles to entry-level training and the employment market due to lack of awareness about the jobs and the requirements. (d) Few renewable programs incorporate developing ownership opportunities for the citizens and the incorporation of women in the sector. (e) The inadequacy of data makes it challenging to build relationships between employment in renewable energy and poverty mitigation.

Recommendations for renewable energy employment

When building the capacity, focus on poor people and individuals to empower them with training in operation and maintenance.

Develop and offer training programs for citizens with minimal education and training, who do not fit current programs, which restrict them from working in renewable areas.

Include women in the renewable workforce by providing localized training.

Establish connections between training institutes and renewable power companies to guarantee that (a) trained workers are placed in appropriate positions during and after the completion of the training program and (b) training programs match the requirements of the renewable sector.

Poverty impact assessments might be embedded in program design to know how programs motivate poverty reduction, whether and how they influence the community.

Allow people to have a sense of ownership in renewable projects because this could contribute to the growth of the sector.

The details of the job being offered (part time, full time, contract-based), the levels of required skills for the job (skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled), the socio-economic status of the employee data need to be collected for further analysis.

Conduct investigations, assisted by field surveys, to learn about the influence of renewable energy jobs on poverty mitigation and differences in the standard of living.

Challenges faced by renewable energy in India

The MNRE has been taking dedicated measures for improving the renewable sector, and its efforts have been satisfactory in recognizing various obstacles.

Policy and regulatory obstacles

A comprehensive policy statement (regulatory framework) is not available in the renewable sector. When there is a requirement to promote the growth of particular renewable energy technologies, policies might be declared that do not match with the plans for the development of renewable energy.

The regulatory framework and procedures are different for every state because they define the respective RPOs (Renewable Purchase Obligations) and this creates a higher risk of investments in this sector. Additionally, the policies are applicable for just 5 years, and the generated risk for investments in this sector is apparent. The biomass sector does not have an established framework.

Incentive accelerated depreciation (AD) is provided to wind developers and is evident in developing India’s wind-producing capacity. Wind projects installed more than 10 years ago show that they are not optimally maintained. Many owners of the asset have built with little motivation for tax benefits only. The policy framework does not require the maintenance of the wind projects after the tax advantages have been claimed. There is no control over the equipment suppliers because they undertake all wind power plant development activities such as commissioning, operation, and maintenance. Suppliers make the buyers pay a premium and increase the equipment cost, which brings burden to the buyer.

Furthermore, ready-made projects are sold to buyers. The buyers are susceptible to this trap to save income tax. Foreign investors hesitate to invest because they are exempted from the income tax.

Every state has different regulatory policy and framework definitions of an RPO. The RPO percentage specified in the regulatory framework for various renewable sources is not precise.

RPO allows the SERCs and certain private firms to procure only a part of their power demands from renewable sources.

RPO is not imposed on open access (OA) and captive consumers in all states except three.

RPO targets and obligations are not clear, and the RPO compliance cell has just started on 22.05.2018 to collect the monthly reports on compliance and deal with non-compliance issues with appropriate authorities.

Penalty mechanisms are not specified and only two states in India (Maharashtra and Rajasthan) have some form of penalty mechanisms.

The parameter to determine the tariff is not transparent in the regulatory framework and many SRECs have established a tariff for limited periods. The FiT is valid for only 5 years, and this affects the bankability of the project.

Many SERCs have not decided on adopting the CERC tariff that is mentioned in CERCs regulations that deal with terms and conditions for tariff determinations. The SERCs have considered the plant load factor (PLF) because it varies across regions and locations as well as particular technology. The current framework does not fit to these issues.

Third party sale (TPS) is not allowed because renewable generators are not allowed to sell power to commercial consumers. They have to sell only to industrial consumers. The industrial consumers have a low tariff and commercial consumers have a high tariff, and SRCS do not allow OA. This stops the profit for the developers and investors.

Institutional obstacles

Institutes, agencies stakeholders who work under the conditions of the MNRE show poor inter-institutional coordination. The progress in renewable energy development is limited by this lack of cooperation, coordination, and delays. The delay in implementing policies due to poor coordination, decrease the interest of investors to invest in this sector.

The single window project approval and clearance system is not very useful and not stable because it delays the receiving of clearances for the projects ends in the levy of a penalty on the project developer.

Pre-feasibility reports prepared by concerned states have some deficiency, and this may affect the small developers, i.e., the local developers, who are willing to execute renewable projects.

The workforce in institutes, agencies, and ministries is not sufficient in numbers.

Proper or well-established research centers are not available for the development of renewable infrastructure.

Customer care centers to guide developers regarding renewable projects are not available.

Standards and quality control orders have been issued recently in 2018 and 2019 only, and there are insufficient institutions and laboratories to give standards/certification and validate the quality and suitability of using renewable technology.

Financial and fiscal obstacles

There are a few budgetary constraints such as fund allocation, and budgets that are not released on time to fulfill the requirement of developing the renewable sector.

The initial unit capital costs of renewable projects are very high compared to fossil fuels, and this leads to financing challenges and initial burden.

There are uncertainties related to the assessment of resources, lack of technology awareness, and high-risk perceptions which lead to financial barriers for the developers.

The subsidies and incentives are not transparent, and the ministry might reconsider subsidies for renewable energy because there was a sharp fall in tariffs in 2018.

Power purchase agreements (PPA) signed between the power purchaser and power generators on pre-determined fixed tariffs are higher than the current bids (Economic survey 2017–2018 and union budget on the 01.02.2019). For example, solar power tariff dropped to 2.44 INR (0. 04 USD) per unit in May 2017, wind power INR 3.46 per unit in February 2017, and 2.64 INR per unit in October 2017.

Investors feel that there is a risk in the renewable sector as this sector has lower gross returns even though these returns are relatively high within the market standards.

There are not many developers who are interested in renewable projects. While newly established developers (small and local developers) do not have much of an institutional track record or financial input, which are needed to develop the project (high capital cost). Even moneylenders consider it risky and are not ready to provide funding. Moneylenders look exclusively for contractors who have much experience in construction, well-established suppliers with proven equipment and operators who have more experience.

If the performance of renewable projects, which show low-performance, faces financial obstacles, they risks the lack of funding of renewable projects.

Financial institutions such as government banks or private banks do not have much understanding or expertise in renewable energy projects, and this imposes financial barriers to the projects.

Delay in payment by the SERCs to the developers imposes debt burden on the small and local developers because moneylenders always work with credit enhancement mechanisms or guarantee bonds signed between moneylenders and the developers.

Market obstacles

Subsidies are adequately provided to conventional fossil fuels, sending the wrong impression that power from conventional fuels is of a higher priority than that from renewables (unfair structure of subsidies)

There are four renewable markets in India, the government market (providing budgetary support to projects and purchase the output of the project), the government-driven market (provide budgetary support or fiscal incentives to promote renewable energy), the loan market (taking loan to finance renewable based applications), and the cash market (buying renewable-based applications to meet personal energy needs by individuals). There is an inadequacy in promoting the loan market and cash market in India.

The biomass market is facing a demand-supply gap which results in a continuous and dramatic increase in biomass prices because the biomass supply is unreliable (and, as there is no organized market for fuel), and the price fluctuations are very high. The type of biomass is not the same in all the states of India, and therefore demand and price elasticity is high for biomass.

Renewable power was calculated based on cost-plus methods (adding direct material cost, direct labor cost, and product overhead cost). This does not include environmental cost and shields the ecological benefits of clean and green energy.

There is an inadequate evacuation infrastructure and insufficient integration of the grid, which affects the renewable projects. SERCs are not able to use all generated power to meet the needs because of the non-availability of a proper evacuation infrastructure. This has an impact on the project, and the SERCs are forced to buy expensive power from neighbor states to fulfill needs.

Extending transmission lines is not possible/not economical for small size projects, and the seasonality of generation from such projects affect the market.

There are few limitations in overall transmission plans, distribution CapEx plans, and distribution licenses for renewable power. Power evacuation infrastructure for renewable energy is not included in the plans.

Even though there is an increase in capacity for the commercially deployed renewable energy technology, there is no decline in capital cost. This cost of power also remains high. The capital cost quoted by the developers and providers of equipment is too high due to exports of machinery, inadequate built up capacity, and cartelization of equipment suppliers (suppliers join together to control prices and limit competition).

There is no adequate supply of land, for wind, solar, and solar thermal power plants, which lead to poor capacity addition in many states.

Technological obstacles

Every installation of a renewable project contributes to complex risk challenges from environmental uncertainties, natural disasters, planning, equipment failure, and profit loss.

MNRE issued the standardization of renewable energy projects policy on the 11th of December 2017 (testing, standardization, and certification). They are still at an elementary level as compared to international practices. Quality assurance processes are still under starting conditions. Each success in renewable energy is based on concrete action plans for standards, testing and certification of performance.

The quality and reliability of manufactured components, imported equipment, and subsystems is essential, and hence quality infrastructure should be established. There is no clear document related to testing laboratories, referral institutes, review mechanism, inspection, and monitoring.

There are not many R&D centers for renewables. Methods to reduce the subsidies and invest in R&D lagging; manufacturing facilities are just replicating the already available technologies. The country is dependent on international suppliers for equipment and technology. Spare parts are not manufactured locally and hence they are scarce.

Awareness, education, and training obstacles

There is an unavailability of appropriately skilled human resources in the renewable energy sector. Furthermore, it faces an acute workforce shortage.

After installation of renewable project/applications by the suppliers, there is no proper follow-up or assistance for the workers in the project to perform maintenance. Likewise, there are not enough trained and skilled persons for demonstrating, training, operation, and maintenance of the plant.

There is inadequate knowledge in renewables, and no awareness programs are available to the general public. The lack of awareness about the technologies is a significant obstacle in acquiring vast land for constructing the renewable plant. Moreover, people using agriculture lands are not prepared to give their land to construct power plants because most Indians cultivate plants.

The renewable sector depends on the climate, and this varying climate also imposes less popularity of renewables among the people.

The per capita income is low, and the people consider that the cost of renewables might be high and they might not be able to use renewables.

The storage system increases the cost of renewables, and people believe it too costly and are not ready to use them.

The environmental benefits of renewable technologies are not clearly understood by the people and negative perceptions are making renewable technologies less prevalent among them.

Environmental obstacles

A single wind turbine does not occupy much space, but many turbines are placed five to ten rotor diameters from each other, and this occupies more area, which include roads and transmission lines.

In the field of offshore wind, the turbines and blades are bigger than onshore wind turbines, and they require a substantial amount of space. Offshore installations affect ocean activities (fishing, sand extraction, gravel extraction, oil extraction, gas extraction, aquaculture, and navigation). Furthermore, they affect fish and other marine wildlife.

Wind turbines influence wildlife (birds and bats) because of the collisions with them and due to air pressure changes caused by wind turbines and habitat disruption. Making wind turbines motionless during times of low wind can protect birds and bats but is not practiced.

Sound (aerodynamic, mechanical) and visual impacts are associated with wind turbines. There is poor practice by the wind turbine developers regarding public concerns. Furthermore, there are imperfections in surfaces and sound—absorbent material which decrease the noise from turbines. The shadow flicker effect is not taken as severe environmental impact by the developers.

Sometimes wind turbine material production, transportation of materials, on-site construction, assembling, operation, maintenance, dismantlement, and decommissioning may be associated with global warming, and there is a lag in this consideration.

Large utility-scale solar plants require vast lands that increase the risk of land degradation and loss of habitat.

The PV cell manufacturing process includes hazardous chemicals such as 1-1-1 Trichloroethene, HCL, H 2 SO 4 , N 2 , NF, and acetone. Workers face risks resulting from inhaling silicon dust. The manufacturing wastes are not disposed of properly. Proper precautions during usage of thin-film PV cells, which contain cadmium—telluride, gallium arsenide, and copper-indium-gallium-diselenide are missing. These materials create severe public health threats and environmental threats.

Hydroelectric power turbine blades kill aquatic ecosystems (fish and other organisms). Moreover, algae and other aquatic weeds are not controlled through manual harvesting or by introducing fish that can eat these plants.

Discussion and recommendations based on the research

Policy and regulation advancements.

The MNRE should provide a comprehensive action plan or policy for the promotion of the renewable sector in its regulatory framework for renewables energy. The action plan can be prepared in consultation with SERCs of the country within a fixed timeframe and execution of the policy/action plan.

The central and state government should include a “Must run status” in their policy and follow it strictly to make use of renewable power.

A national merit order list for renewable electricity generation will reduce power cost for the consumers. Such a merit order list will help in ranking sources of renewable energy in an ascending order of price and will provide power at a lower cost to each distribution company (DISCOM). The MNRE should include that principle in its framework and ensure that SERCs includes it in their regulatory framework as well.

SERCs might be allowed to remove policies and regulatory uncertainty surrounding renewable energy. SERCs might be allowed to identify the thrust areas of their renewable energy development.

There should be strong initiatives from municipality (local level) approvals for renewable energy-based projects.

Higher market penetration is conceivable only if their suitable codes and standards are adopted and implemented. MNRE should guide minimum performance standards, which incorporate reliability, durability, and performance.

A well-established renewable energy certificates (REC) policy might contribute to an efficient funding mechanism for renewable energy projects. It is necessary for the government to look at developing the REC ecosystem.

The regulatory administration around the RPO needs to be upgraded with a more efficient “carrot and stick” mechanism for obligated entities. A regulatory mechanism that both remunerations compliance and penalizes for non-compliance may likely produce better results.

RECs in India should only be traded on exchange. Over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange trading will potentially allow greater participation in the market. A REC forward curve will provide further price determination to the market participants.

The policymakers should look at developing and building the REC market.

Most states have defined RPO targets. Still, due to the absence of implemented RPO regulations and the inadequacy of penalties when obligations are not satisfied, several of the state DISCOMs are not complying completely with their RPO targets. It is necessary that all states adhere to the RPO targets set by respective SERCs.

The government should address the issues such as DISCOM financials, must-run status, problems of transmission and evacuation, on-time payments and payment guarantees, and deemed generation benefits.

Proper incentives should be devised to support utilities to obtain power over and above the RPO mandated by the SERC.

The tariff orders/FiTs must be consistent and not restricted for a few years.

Transmission requirements

The developers are worried that transmission facilities are not keeping pace with the power generation. Bays at the nearest substations are occupied, and transmission lines are already carrying their full capacity. This is due to the lack of coordination between MNRE and the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and CEA. Solar Corporation of India (SECI) is holding auctions for both wind and solar projects without making sure that enough evacuation facilities are available. There is an urgent need to make evacuation plans.

The solution is to develop numerous substations and transmission lines, but the process will take considerably longer time than the currently under-construction projects take to get finished.

In 2017–2018, transmission lines were installed under the green energy corridor project by the PGCIL, with 1900 circuit km targeted in 2018–2019. The implementation of the green energy corridor project explicitly meant to connect renewable energy plants to the national grid. The budget allocation of INR 6 billion for 2018–2019 should be increased to higher values.

The mismatch between MNRE and PGCIL, which are responsible for inter-state transmission, should be rectified.

State transmission units (STUs) are responsible for the transmission inside the states, and their fund requirements to cover the evacuation and transmission infrastructure for renewable energy should be fulfilled. Moreover, STUs should be penalized if they fail to fulfill their responsibilities.

The coordination and consultation between the developers (the nodal agency responsible for the development of renewable energy) and STUs should be healthy.

Financing the renewable sector

The government should provide enough budget for the clean energy sector. China’s annual budget for renewables is 128 times higher than India’s. In 2017, China spent USD 126.6 billion (INR 9 lakh crore) compared to India’s USD 10.9 billion (INR 75500 crore). In 2018, budget allocations for grid interactive wind and solar have increased but it is not sufficient to meet the renewable target.

The government should concentrate on R&D and provide a surplus fund for R&D. In 2017, the budget allotted was an INR 445 crore, which was reduced to an INR 272.85 crore in 2016. In 2017–2018, the initial allocation was an INR 144 crore that was reduced to an INR 81 crore during the revised estimates. Even the reduced amounts could not be fully used, there is an urgent demand for regular monitoring of R&D and the budget allocation.

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) that was introduced in 2017 worsened the industry performance and has led to an increase in costs and poses a threat to the viability of the ongoing projects, ultimately hampering the target achievement. These GST issues need to be addressed.

Including the renewable sector as a priority sector would increase the availability of credit and lead to a more substantial participation by commercial banks.

Mandating the provident funds and insurance companies to invest the fixed percentage of their portfolio into the renewable energy sector.

Banks should allow an interest rebate on housing loans if the owner is installing renewable applications such as solar lights, solar water heaters, and PV panels in his house. This will encourage people to use renewable energy. Furthermore, income tax rebates also can be given to individuals if they are implementing renewable energy applications.

Improvement in manufacturing/technology

The country should move to domestic manufacturing. It imports 90% of its solar cell and module requirements from Malaysia, China, and Taiwan, so it is essential to build a robust domestic manufacturing basis.

India will provide “safeguard duty” for merely 2 years, and this is not adequate to build a strong manufacturing basis that can compete with the global market. Moreover, safeguard duty would work only if India had a larger existing domestic manufacturing base.

The government should reconsider the safeguard duty. Many foreign companies desiring to set up joint ventures in India provide only a lukewarm response because the given order in its current form presents inadequate safeguards.

There are incremental developments in technology at regular periods, which need capital, and the country should discover a way to handle these factors.

To make use of the vast estimated renewable potential in India, the R&D capability should be upgraded to solve critical problems in the clean energy sector.

A comprehensive policy for manufacturing should be established. This would support capital cost reduction and be marketed on a global scale.

The country should initiate an industry-academia partnership, which might promote innovative R&D and support leading-edge clean power solutions to protect the globe for future generations.

Encourage the transfer of ideas between industry, academia, and policymakers from around the world to develop accelerated adoption of renewable power.

Awareness about renewables

Social recognition of renewable energy is still not very promising in urban India. Awareness is the crucial factor for the uniform and broad use of renewable energy. Information about renewable technology and their environmental benefits should reach society.

The government should regularly organize awareness programs throughout the country, especially in villages and remote locations such as the islands.

The government should open more educational/research organizations, which will help in spreading knowledge of renewable technology in society.

People should regularly be trained with regard to new techniques that would be beneficial for the community.

Sufficient agencies should be available to sell renewable products and serve for technical support during installation and maintenance.

Development of the capabilities of unskilled and semiskilled workers and policy interventions are required related to employment opportunities.

An increase in the number of qualified/trained personnel might immediately support the process of installations of renewables.

Renewable energy employers prefer to train employees they recruit because they understand that education institutes fail to give the needed and appropriate skills. The training institutes should rectify this issue. Severe trained human resources shortages should be eliminated.

Upgrading the ability of the existing workforce and training of new professionals is essential to achieve the renewable goal.

Hybrid utilization of renewables

The country should focus on hybrid power projects for an effective use of transmission infrastructure and land.

India should consider battery storage in hybrid projects, which support optimizing the production and the power at competitive prices as well as a decrease of variability.

Formulate mandatory standards and regulations for hybrid systems, which are lagging in the newly announced policies (wind-solar hybrid policy on 14.05.2018).

The hybridization of two or more renewable systems along with the conventional power source battery storage can increase the performance of renewable technologies.

Issues related to sizing and storage capacity should be considered because they are key to the economic viability of the system.

Fiscal and financial incentives available for hybrid projects should be increased.

The renewable sector suffers notable obstacles. Some of them are inherent in every renewable technology; others are the outcome of a skewed regulative structure and marketplace. The absence of comprehensive policies and regulation frameworks prevent the adoption of renewable technologies. The renewable energy market requires explicit policies and legal procedures to enhance the attention of investors. There is a delay in the authorization of private sector projects because of a lack of clear policies. The country should take measures to attract private investors. Inadequate technology and the absence of infrastructure required to establish renewable technologies should be overcome by R&D. The government should allow more funds to support research and innovation activities in this sector. There are insufficiently competent personnel to train, demonstrate, maintain, and operate renewable energy structures and therefore, the institutions should be proactive in preparing the workforce. Imported equipment is costly compared to that of locally manufactured; therefore, generation of renewable energy becomes expensive and even unaffordable. Hence, to decrease the cost of renewable products, the country should become involve in the manufacturing of renewable products. Another significant infrastructural obstacle to the development of renewable energy technologies is unreliable connectivity to the grid. As a consequence, many investors lose their faith in renewable energy technologies and are not ready to invest in them for fear of failing. India should work on transmission and evacuation plans.

Inadequate servicing and maintenance of facilities and low reliability in technology decreases customer trust in some renewable energy technologies and hence prevent their selection. Adequate skills to repair/service the spare parts/equipment are required to avoid equipment failures that halt the supply of energy. Awareness of renewable energy among communities should be fostered, and a significant focus on their socio-cultural practices should be considered. Governments should support investments in the expansion of renewable energy to speed up the commercialization of such technologies. The Indian government should declare a well-established fiscal assistance plan, such as the provision of credit, deduction on loans, and tariffs. The government should improve regulations making obligations under power purchase agreements (PPAs) statutorily binding to guarantee that all power DISCOMs have PPAs to cover a hundred percent of their RPO obligation. To accomplish a reliable system, it is strongly suggested that renewables must be used in a hybrid configuration of two or more resources along with conventional source and storage devices. Regulatory authorities should formulate the necessary standards and regulations for hybrid systems. Making investments economically possible with effective policies and tax incentives will result in social benefits above and beyond the economic advantages.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

Accelerated depreciation

Billion units

Central Electricity Authority of India

Central electricity regulatory commission

Central financial assistance

Expression of interest

Foreign direct investment

Feed-in-tariff

Ministry of new and renewable energy

Research and development

Renewable purchase obligations

State electricity regulatory

Small hydropower

Terawatt hours

Waste to energy

Chr.Von Zabeltitz (1994) Effective use of renewable energies for greenhouse heating. Renewable Energy 5:479-485.

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Kumar. J, C.R., Majid, M.A. Renewable energy for sustainable development in India: current status, future prospects, challenges, employment, and investment opportunities. Energ Sustain Soc 10 , 2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-019-0232-1

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The National Electricity Market wasn’t made for a renewable energy future. Here’s how to fix it

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Between 2019 and 2023, the former Energy Security Board ( ESB ) and regulators were tasked with delivering a new market design for the clean energy transition. Reforms to better integrate variable renewable generation included:

improved forecasting of electricity demand and supply

the Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism to allow demand-side (or energy consumer) participation in the market.

The Energy Security Board also proposed a two-sided market to allow energy users to actively trade electricity. The design of the reform fell short , but the intent remains valid. This reform needs to be revisited.

The electricity market rules define what commodities are valued and traded, how they are to be traded and by whom. These rules are embedded in thousands of pages of legislation . Each change takes about two years to progress.

These incremental market and policy patches fall short of the systemic change needed for a clean energy future. The whole National Electricity Market and its processes must be redefined.

The current focus of attention is on the large scale. What is being overlooked is the potential of small-scale and local generation to supply electricity where it is needed. This oversight creates a risk of building too much transmission infrastructure at great cost.

The opportunity of energy market reform is that the millions of small, privately owned, behind-the-meter generators could economically provide a big share of Australia’s future electricity and power system services.

Read more: Think of solar panels more like apple trees – we need a fairer approach for what we use and sell

Rooftop solar panels on a new development of townhouses

Government must lead the transformation

The clean energy transition is a national priority. Change on this scale requires governments to work together to deliver economic productivity, affordable energy and climate action.

A clear set of principles is needed to guide these changes. The principles from the National Energy Transformation Partnership agreement between federal, state and territory governments are a good place to start. It recognises consumers’ needs as central to the transformation, and that a strong economy depends on affordable, clean and secure energy sources.

The agreement also recognises the role electricity networks and demand-side participation will play in the energy transition. The demand side includes all the small, behind-the-meter, grid-connected, rooftop solar systems and interruptible uses of electricity such as hot-water systems .

Read more: Using electric water heaters to store renewable energy could do the work of 2 million home batteries – and save us billions

Reforming the electricity market is complex work. It requires an in-depth knowledge of governance and regulatory frameworks, commercial realities and consumer needs.

Putting energy users at the heart of these complex reforms requires a holistic systems thinking approach to policy and regulatory design. Such an approach takes into account how all parts of a complex system interact.

With the consumer having such a key role, the focus, planning and investment in these smaller energy sources must be on par with that given to the large generators.

Renewable Energy Zones – areas with the greatest potential to develop renewable energy projects – have shown that, with the right policy settings, billions of dollars of investment can be mobilised. The same level of focus on policy settings and market reforms is needed at the small scale of “Community Energy Zones”.

Each zone must be able to accommodate the unique characteristics of its energy users. It must create an investment environment that supports a local ecosystem of skills, trades and community benefit, ultimately leading to a zero-emission community. It must also support technological and business innovation and allow distribution networks to transition to a smart grid at low risk and low cost.

Learning from successful examples overseas such as smart local energy systems (UK) and Viable Cities (Sweden) will be crucial.

  • Renewable energy
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  • renewables transition
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Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Fe-doped α-mno 2 /rgo cathode material for zinc ion batteries with long lifespan and high areal capacity †.

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* Corresponding authors

a Division of Fuel Cell & Battery, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China E-mail: [email protected]

b Energy Administration of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

Currently, research interest in aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) has surged throughout the world owing to their merits of high theoretical energy density, high safety and low cost. However, the lack of suitable cathode materials with high energy density and cycling stability has severely restricted the further development and practical application of ZIBs. Herein, we propose a facile Fe heteroatom doping and rGO external coating modification strategy for preparing an Fe-doped α-MnO 2 /rGO cathode material with excellent kinetic performance and structural stability for ZIBs. The introduction of heterogeneous Fe increased carrier concentration and induced Mn-defects in the α-MnO 2 lattice, which not only improved electronic conductivity, but also attenuated electrostatic interactions during the process of Zn 2+ ion insertion/extraction. Furthermore, the coated rGO layer with a thickness of about 4 nm significantly suppressed the dissolution of Mn 2+ ions and volume expansion during cycles. Consequently, it delivered a high specific capacity of 167.7 mA h g −1 at 1 A g −1 after 2000 cycles and an excellent rate capacity of 62.5 mA h g −1 at 15 A g −1 . Encouragingly, an imposing areal capacity of 32.8 mA h cm −2 and a specific capacity of 164.2 mA h g −1 were observed at 0.05C (1C = 308 mA h g −1 ) for a highly active material loading of 200 mg cm −2 .

Graphical abstract: Fe-doped α-MnO2/rGO cathode material for zinc ion batteries with long lifespan and high areal capacity

  • This article is part of the themed collection: Journal of Materials Chemistry A HOT Papers

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Fe-doped α-MnO 2 /rGO cathode material for zinc ion batteries with long lifespan and high areal capacity

Q. Zhang, H. Fan, Q. Liu, Y. Wu and E. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. A , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D3TA07587G

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Health Effects and Public Health Concerns of Energy Drink Consumption in the United States: A Mini-Review

Laila al-shaar.

1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States

2 Population Health Sciences Program, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States

Kelsey Vercammen

3 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States

Scott Richardson

Martha tamez, josiemer mattei.

As energy drink consumption continues to grow worldwide and within the United States, it is important to critically examine the nutritional content and effects on population health of these beverages. This mini-review summarizes the current scientific evidence on health consequences from energy drink consumption, presents relevant public health challenges, and proposes recommendations to mitigate these issues. Emerging evidence has linked energy drink consumption with a number of negative health consequences such as risk-seeking behaviors, poor mental health, adverse cardiovascular effects, and metabolic, renal, or dental conditions. Despite the consistency in evidence, most studies are of cross-sectional design or focus almost exclusively on the effect of caffeine and sugar, failing to address potentially harmful effects of other ingredients. The negative health effects associated with energy drinks (ED) are compounded by a lack of regulatory oversight and aggressive marketing by the industry toward adolescents. Moreover, the rising trend of mixing ED with alcohol presents a new challenge that researchers and public health practitioners must address further. To curb this growing public health issue, policy makers should consider creating a separate regulatory category for ED, setting an evidence-based upper limit on caffeine, restricting sales of ED, and regulating existing ED marketing strategies, especially among children and adolescents.

Introduction

Energy drinks (ED) are non-alcoholic beverages marketed to improve energy, stamina, athletic performance, and concentration. Categorized as “functional beverages” alongside sports drinks and nutraceuticals, the ED industry has grown dramatically in the past 20 years, reaching over $9.7 billion in United States (U.S.) sales in 2015, with two brands accounting for nearly 85% of the market ( 1 ). The target consumer market for ED is adolescents and young adults ( 1 ), with one study finding that 51% of college students report consuming at least one ED each month ( 2 ). While annual sales of ED remain dwarfed by those of soft drinks and coffee, there are concerns that lax regulation of marketing and ingredient labeling is spurring a trend of increased consumption. Since their introduction to the U.S. market in 1997, there has been a significant increasing trend in ED consumption among children, adolescents, and adults, although the proportion of calories attributable to ED is still marginal compared to other sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) such as soda and fruit juice ( 3 , 4 ). The rising prevalence of ED consumption is particularly problematic given the emerging evidence of association with negative health consequences such as risk-seeking behaviors, adverse cardiovascular effects, and metabolic, renal, or dental conditions ( 5 , 6 ). Updating and integrating the findings of some previous reviews ( 7 , 8 ), this mini-review summarizes the current scientific evidence on ED health effects, presents relevant public health challenges, and proposes recommendations to amend these issues.

Constituents and Ingredients

Despite the vast array of ED available in the U.S., most ED contain similar ingredients including water, sugar, caffeine, non-nutritive stimulants (e.g., guarana, ginseng, yerba mate, taurine, l -carnitine, d -glucuronolactone, and inositol) and certain vitamins and minerals (e.g., B vitamins) ( 1 , 9 ). The caffeine content in ED ranges widely from 47 to 80 mg per 8 oz to as high as 207 mg per 2 oz and comes from a number of ingredient sources ( 10 ). While moderate caffeine intake (up to 400 mg/day) is generally considered safe and even beneficial for health among adults ( 11 ), there has not been extensive research conducted on children and adolescents to determine if any tolerable level exists ( 12 ). ED also contain large amounts of high fructose-corn syrup, sucrose, or artificial sweeteners. The amount of sugar contained in one can (500 mL or 16.9 oz) of an ED is typically about 54 g ( 13 ). Many institutions, including the World Health Organization, have recommended reducing sugar intake due to the strong evidence linking consumption of added sugar to poor health ( 14 ).

Reports on other constituents of ED are relatively limited. Guarana is a plant extract native to South America which contains a significant amount of caffeine, with 1 g of guarana equivalent to 40 mg of caffeine ( 15 ). Due to this particularly high caffeine content, guarana is often included as an ingredient in ED for its stimulatory effect ( 1 , 16 ). Ginseng is an herbal supplement that has been used for thousands of years in East Asia and has reported health benefits including vasorelaxation, antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and anticancer ( 17 , 18 ). Like guarana, yerba mate has a high caffeine concentration (78 mg caffeine per cup) ( 1 ) and is additionally thought to have benefits in the form of antioxidant capacity, weight management, and cancer prevention ( 19 ). Taurine has been reported to have anti-inflammatory actions and has been suggested in the treatment of epilepsy, heart failure, cystic fibrosis, and diabetes ( 20 ). B vitamins refer to a group of eight water soluble vitamins which generally play an important role in cell functioning, with vitamin B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine), and B12 being the most common B vitamins added to ED ( 1 ). Despite the importance of B vitamins as coenzymes in various metabolic processes, most individuals in the U.S. already meet the recommended daily amount and hence the additional B vitamins added to ED are often excreted from the body with urine, failing to impart any additional health effect ( 1 ). The literature on the content and function of other additives such as l -carnitine, d -glucuronolactone, and inositol is limited, with a few studies suggesting moderate benefits ( 18 ).

Health Effects of ED

Improved cognitive and physical performance.

Some studies support the temporary health benefits of ED in improving mental and physical stamina among both adults and adolescents. Several randomized controlled trials among adults have shown an association between components of ED and improved subjective alertness ( 21 ), as well as restoration of fatigue ( 22 ). Due to its similar structure to adenosine, caffeine can inhibit sleep through its competitive binding to the adenosine receptor ( 23 ). Studies have also shown the effect of ED on improved physical activity performance in young-adult athletes ( 24 – 27 ). A recent meta-analysis of acute-effect studies conducted among adults found that ED consumption improved muscle strength and endurance, performance on endurance exercise tests, jumping, and sport-specific actions ( 28 ).

In contrast, the vast majority of evidence suggests negative health effects of both short- and long-term ED consumption (Table ​ (Table1), 1 ), with most literature proposing these health disadvantages are attributable to high levels of caffeine and sugar while highlighting that more research is needed on the effects of other ED constituents.

Summary of negative health effects of energy drinks (ED).

a The evidence for adverse metabolic and dental effects comes from studies on sugar-sweetened beverages in general; ED are often classified as such as they contain added sugar .

Risk-Seeking Behaviors and Mental Health Effects

Several studies report a consistent association between ED consumption and substance abuse, although the evidence base consists primarily of cross-sectional studies, which does not allow for establishing directionality of the association ( 29 – 34 ). For example, in a nationally representative sample of U.S. middle- and high-school students, significant associations were found between ED frequency and 30-day frequency of use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, or amphetamines ( 32 ). This echoes cross-sectional results among adolescent regular consumers (>1 ED/week) in Europe who were more likely to smoke and drink alcohol compared to non-consumers ( 35 ). Some studies have additionally found evidence for an association between ED consumption and mental health, including stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation, plan or attempt ( 33 , 36 , 37 ). For example, teenagers in Canada who reported ED consumption more than once a month were nearly three times more likely to report elevated depressive symptoms compared to those who did not report ED consumption ( 33 ). A review of ED consumption and mental health among adolescents and adults supported a positive association between chronic ED use and undesirable mental health effects, including stress, anxiety, and depression ( 37 ). The authors postulate that this association may be moderated by dysregulated sleep, such that consuming heavily caffeinated ED may result in sleep loss which in turn may contribute to poor functioning and mental health.

Adverse Cardiovascular Effects

Numerous studies have explored the short-term effects of ED on the cardiovascular system, primarily with respect to caffeine and sugar ( 38 – 40 ). For example, a recent randomized crossover study on healthy subjects found that consumption of 355 mL of an ED resulted in increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac output ( 39 ). A 2016 meta-analysis of 15 studies similarly reported that acute ED consumption resulted in increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure across the pooled results ( 41 ). Although the meta-analysis did not find evidence for increased heart rate, the researchers noted the need for well-designed studies before any conclusions can be made.

Caffeine toxicity is believed to occur above 400 mg/day for adults, 100 mg/day for adolescents (12–18 years), and 2.5 mg/kg of body weight for children (<12 years), with serious symptoms often related to cardiovascular effects ( 42 ). In the 1-year period between October 2010 and September 2011, the U.S. National Poison Data System received 4,854 ED-related calls, including major adverse events such as seizure, dysrhythmia, and tachypnea ( 42 ). Data from Australian poisons centers confirm these major symptoms of recreational or accidental ED intake among children and adolescents, in addition to palpitations, agitation, and tremor ( 43 ). Given that these data relies on self-reported signs and symptoms and most consumers may not readily identify ED as a poison, it is likely that ED-related toxicity reports are underestimated. It is believed that the potential for caffeine toxicity from ED is greater than other caffeine sources such as coffee or tea due to inadequate labeling and greater volume of consumption driven by heavy advertising promoting “more is better,” especially among children and youth ( 5 ).

Adverse Metabolic, Dental, or Renal Effects

Sugar-sweetened beverages, which refer to beverages with added sugar such as soda, fruit juice, and many ED, are consistently associated with long-term negative health effects particularly among children and adolescents ( 44 – 46 ). Primarily, SSBs have been linked to overweight/obesity risk and metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes ( 44 , 47 – 49 ), potentially through the low satiety of SSBs and consumers not sufficiently reducing total energy intake to account for the additional calories of SSBs ( 50 ). In addition, consumption of SSBs increases blood glucose and insulin levels, contributing to a high glycemic load which is associated with glucose intolerance and insulin resistance ( 48 ). SSBs are also associated with a high prevalence of dental caries, wherein bacteria in the mouth utilize the sugars from SSBs and produce acid that decays the teeth ( 51 , 52 ). Finally, renal diseases, specifically renal microvascular damage ( 53 ) and accelerated progression of chronic kidney disease, have been shown to be induced by fructose in SSBs in animal-based models ( 54 , 55 ).

Other Health Effects

Energy drinks’ consumption is also associated with other commonly reported health problems such as sleep dissatisfaction, tiredness/fatigue, late bedtime, headaches, and stomachaches and irritation ( 35 , 56 – 59 ). It is likely that many of these general health complaints are attributable to caffeine or sugar content, but additional research needs to be conducted to confirm this, as well as to assess the potential effect of other constituents. In a cross-sectional study conducted in Finland, consumers of ED had a 4.6 (95% CI: 2.8, 7.7) times greater odds of headaches, 3.6 (95% CI: 2.2, 5.8) times greater odds of sleeping problems, and 4.1 (95% CI: 2.7, 6.1) times greater odds of having an irritable mood compared to non-consumers ( 57 ).

Limitations of the Existing Literature

The literature generally suggests that the negative health effects of ED outweigh the beneficial effects. However, there are considerable limitations to the existing literature. First, most studies on ED are cross-sectional, limiting the ability to establish temporal relationships and support causality. In addition, many articles used small homogenous populations, often consisting of healthy, young to middle-aged adults, thus limiting generalizability to the U.S. population. Finally, studies specifically examining the effects of other ED constituents are lacking and thus there is limited knowledge on the potential mechanisms beyond those of caffeine and sugar, for which most of the literature exist.

Relevant Public Health Challenges

Energy drink marketing.

Since 2004, aggressive advertising by ED companies has led to substantial market growth, with a more than 240% increase in sales in the U.S. and worldwide. ED are now available in more than 140 countries ( 8 ) and are on track to become a $21 billion industry in the U.S. by 2017 ( 60 ).

Energy drinks’ marketing strategies pose a significant public health threat in the U.S. due to the size of their target adolescent market and the marketing strategies they employ. ED face heavy competition for market share with SSB corporations that dwarf them in size, customer base, distribution capability, and ability to invest in advertising ( 61 ). To compete, ED companies target the approximately 33.5 million 12- to 19-year olds in the U.S. ( 62 ). The public health implications of targeting adolescents are not trivial: adolescents lack maturity in key areas of the brain, are biologically predisposed to have poor impulse control, and are more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior ( 63 ). This not only makes them more likely to consume the product on a regular basis but also makes them more vulnerable to identifying and potentially engaging in sexual and risk-taking behaviors depicted in ED marketing.

Adolescents’ vulnerability to the marketing tactics of ED companies is particularly serious given that ED are now omnipresent across multiple vending channels with price points widely affordable to all strata of the population. There are few signs that the scale and targeting of ED marketing will change in the near future. A 2014 study on ED marketing conducted by the offices of several U.S. Senators found that of the sixteen companies they approached, only four agreed to avoid marketing their products to children ( 64 ).

Lack of Regulation and Taxation

Overall, there is a significant lack of ED regulation in the U.S. ( 65 ). While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforces a caffeine limit of 71 mg per 12 fluid ounces for soda, ED manufacturers can avoid this by classifying their product as a “supplement,” regulated under the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Education Act and not subject to any caffeine limits ( 1 , 8 ). That said, many ED companies are moving to marketing their products as beverages to address public concerns that their products are circumventing labeling requirements and also to enable ED to be available to participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a U.S. nutrition assistance program providing low-income individuals with financial support to purchase food and beverages.

In 2014, the American Beverage Association published the “Guidance for the Responsible Labeling and Marketing of Energy Drinks,” which allowed ED companies to voluntarily commit to a number of industry goals ( 66 ). The companies committed to report total quantities of caffeine from all sources, restrict marketing to children, and voluntarily report adverse events to the FDA. However, an assessment report found that compliance to this commitment was staggeringly low ( 64 ), with 8 of 12 companies still marketing to children and 4 of 10 companies not willing to report adverse events voluntarily. Other countries facing similar challenge to the U.S. have implemented various approaches to regulate ED. For example, Australia and New Zealand created a unique regulatory category for ED called “formulated caffeine beverages,” and set the upper limit of caffeine from any source to be 320 mg/L ( 65 ).

In addition to regulation, some countries have implemented taxation policies as a deterrent to ED consumption. Mexico currently taxes all non-alcoholic beverages with added sugar, including ED, at one-peso-per-liter, with recent assessments reporting that purchases of taxed beverages have decreased by an average of 6% since implementation in January 2014 ( 67 ). Similarly successful initiatives have been emerging in some U.S. cities ( 68 ).

Alcohol and Energy Drink Mixing

In addition to being consumed alone, ED are frequently mixed with alcohol, with one study in the European Union finding that 71% of young adults report consuming ED with alcohol ( 69 ). This is problematic because individuals who drink alcohol-mixed ED consume more alcohol than if they were drinking alcohol alone ( 70 , 71 ). Researchers attribute this to the fact that consumption of ED masks the signs of alcohol inebriation, enabling an individual to believe they can still safely consume more alcohol, leading to “awake drunkenness” ( 72 ). As a result of this increased alcohol consumption, those who drink alcohol-mixed ED are more likely to experience severe dehydration and alcohol poisoning ( 73 ). This negative health trend is particularly concerning as it disproportionately affects underage individuals and has been linked to binge drinking, alcohol-dependence behaviors ( 70 ) and drunk driving ( 74 ).

Recommendations and Future Directions

Public health and policy action must be taken to mitigate the negative health effects and public health challenges associated with ED. First, the FDA should consider regulation of ED as a separate category, requiring clear labeling of total caffeine and sugar content in reference to daily recommended amounts, and enforcing an upper limit for caffeine based on current evidence. Additional consideration should be given to taxing ED and/or restricting the sale of ED to children and adolescents. Marketing strategies should be also regulated to minimize the promotion of ED among adolescent and young adults. Because marketing is largely aimed at this segment of the population, exposure to ED products could be reduced considerably. In parallel, further research should continue to improve the quality of the evidence on the health effects of ED with particular attention to observational studies with longer follow-up, more heterogeneous populations, and the effects of other ED constituents. Finally, adolescents and their parents should be educated on the adverse nutritional content and subsequent health effects of ED so that they can make informed decisions about consumption.

Despite some limited beneficial short-term effects, ED should be considered a significant public health problem that warrants attention. The growing evidence base demonstrating associations between ED consumption and negative health effects and public health challenges point to the need for close surveillance and assessment of this issue by researchers and policy makers.

Author Contributions

LA-S and KV conceptualized the topic, researched and analyzed the background literature, and wrote the manuscript, including interpretations. CL and SR researched and analyzed the background literature and wrote portions of the manuscript, including interpretations. MT and JM provided substantial scholarly guidance on the conception of the topic, manuscript draft and interpretation, and revised the manuscript critically for intellectual content. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript, ensured the accuracy and integrity of the work, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer, MS, declared a shared affiliation, with no collaboration, with the authors to the handling editor.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the comments from our colleagues from the 2016 Principles of Nutrition course at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Funding. SR was supported by the NIH-NHLBI (HHS/United States) CVD Epidemiology Training Program in Behavior, the Environment and Global Health (grant number T32 HL098048). MT was supported by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT, Mexico). JM was supported by a NIH-NHLBI Mentored Career Development Award to Promote Faculty Diversity in Biomedical Research (grant number K01-HL120951).

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    The primary objective for deploying renewable energy in India is to advance economic development, improve energy security, improve access to energy, and mitigate climate change. Sustainable development is possible by use of sustainable energy and by ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for citizens. Strong government support and the increasingly opportune ...

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    The Energy Security Board also proposed a two-sided market to allow energy users to actively trade electricity. The design of the reform fell short , but the intent remains valid. This reform ...

  24. Low protein diets produce divergent effects on energy balance

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    Currently, research interest in aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) has surged throughout the world owing to their merits of high theoretical energy density, high safety and low cost. However, the lack of suitable cathode materials with high energy density and cycling stability has severely restricted the further dev Journal of Materials Chemistry A HOT Papers

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    The negative health effects associated with energy drinks (ED) are compounded by a lack of regulatory oversight and aggressive marketing by the industry toward adolescents. ... In parallel, further research should continue to improve the quality of the evidence on the health effects of ED with particular attention to observational studies with ...