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India’s low-cost solar is arguably the country’s biggest advantage on the renewable energy front. Solar and wind power are driving the global energy transition, with countries investing heavily to meet climate and energy targets. In India, solar has emerged as the flagship segment, growing from about 3 GW in 2014 to over 150 GW of installed capacity by March 2026.
One of the biggest factors enabling this growth has been the consistently falling cost of solar power. This cost advantage is not just a domestic success story—it is a structural edge that positions India strongly in the global clean energy transition.
Through this blog, we explore how India’s lowest-cost solar has evolved and why it remains central to the country’s future energy pathway.
Solar’s upfront cost is now lower than fossil power, removing a key barrier for capital-scarce economies. 
The Indian solar market has witnessed a dramatic 95% fall in solar costs since 2010, as the solar PV module costs fell from over Rs 200 per watt in 2010 to under Rs 9 in 2024, according to research from the India Energy & Climate Center (IECC) at the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: Ember Analysis
Recent auction data further reinforces India’s position as a low-cost solar market. Utility-scale solar tariffs have been discovered as low as ₹2.48 per kWh in recent bids, making them among the cheapest globally.
Even hybrid and firm renewable projects—combining solar with wind or storage—are now being bid in the range of ₹3.4 to ₹5.6 per kWh, reflecting improving reliability without a steep cost increase.
This cost competitiveness means solar power is now cheaper than new coal-based generation in many cases, and is comparable to or lower than industrial electricity tariffs. This also makes solar increasingly viable for large-scale deployment without subsidies.
This shall not just be seen as a technological milestone, but also means that India can now feasibly generate—and even store—solar power for round-the-clock use.
According to a recent analysis by Ember, solar combined with battery storage could supply up to 90 percent of India’s electricity demand at a levelised cost of ₹5.06 per kWh ($56/MWh).
This is a critical shift in energy economics. Battery storage, once considered expensive, has seen rapid cost declines as global battery costs fell by 40 percent in 2024, followed by an additional 31 percent drop in 2025
This has solved solar’s biggest limitation – its inability to generate power after sunset. With storage, precious renewable solar energy during daytime can be stored and be dispatched during evening and night peaks, making solar a reliable, dispatchable energy source.
In fact, recent solar-plus-storage projects in India have already achieved tariffs as low as ₹2.7–₹2.76 per kWh, signalling strong commercial viability. This drop was seen in Madhya Pradesh’s maiden solar-plus-storage project in Morena, which recorded a tariff of ₹2.70/kWh.
The energy storage sector is poised for a transformative breakout in 2026, with battery energy storage capacity addition set to surge nearly 10-fold from 507 MWh in 2025 to approximately 5 GWh in 2026. 
From the above analysis, it is clear that low-cost solar represents a major opportunity for India, particularly due to the sharp decline in battery storage costs. This marks a significant shift from solar being a daytime-only resource to a reliable, round-the-clock power source, enabled by storing excess daytime generation for use during non-solar hours. This is exactly what India needs right now.
The economics further strengthen this opportunity. The cost of around ₹2.7 ($0.028) per kWh makes it cost-competitive with, or cheaper than, the average cost of supply in many parts of the world. In Comparison, China continues to maintain the most aggressive cost structure globally, leveraging massive scale and domestic manufacturing to achieve generation costs near $0.027/kWh.
The developed world is seeing a mixed trend. In Europe, costs vary significantly by market. While sunny regions like Portugal and Spain consistently hit the lower end of the spectrum – near $0.022/kWh – northern or more complex grid markets see higher costs.
In the US, while the base unsubsidized LCOE remains higher than in India and China, federal tax incentives (ITC/PTC) can significantly reduce the effective cost for project owners, narrowing the gap – often bringing the realised cost for developers into the $0.020–$0.045/kWh range.
The scale of the opportunity is substantial for India. By leveraging low-cost solar and storage, India can meet a large share of its growing electricity demand without building significant new fossil fuel capacity. This also improves system flexibility, as stored solar power can be dispatched when needed, helping balance supply and demand more efficiently.
We are India’s leading B2B media house, reporting full-time on solar energy, wind, battery storage, solar inverters, and electric vehicle (EV)
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