Contestation and perceptions of interplay in multi-scalar production networks in India's off-grid solar sector

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, scholars have focused increasingly on market-based energy access for the energy poor in developing countries. However, little is known about the implications of the expansion of pro-poor markets and their respective renewable energy production. This study examines the relationship between global production and regulation in India's off-grid solar (OGS) sector. A better understanding of the relationship between global production and India's energy access framework is necessary to understand the wicked problem of local energy needs and ongoing climate crisis. This study is based on a narrative analysis of 34 expert interviews and traces the emergence of India's OGS sector in three historical phases. Two discourse coalitions increasingly developed different perceptions of accelerating India's energy transition. Despite the shared goals of creating energy access through market-based approaches, the two coalitions conflict in achieving the goal of energy access for all through local or global production.

KEYWORDS:

• Double movement
• global production networks
• off-grid solar systems
• India
• energy transition

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Joachim Becker, the two anonymous reviewers, and participants at the ECPR conference in Wroclaw, Poland 2019, and the ‘Energy transitions in the Global South’ workshop at Leiden University in February 2020 for their inputs and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In August 2021, India reached 100 GW in renewable energy production (Banerjee, 2021). Solar and wind targets were revised by the government to reach 500 GW by 2030, as part of a pledge at COP 26 of the United Nations climate convention (The Economic Times, 2021).

2 Interview 1,2,7,22

3 Interview 22

4 Interview 2,3,7,8,10

5 Interview 1,12,25

6 Interview 14,15,16,34

7 Interview 1,2,5

8 Interview 1

9 Interview 2

10 Interview 2,16

11 Interview 1,2,4,5,7,10

12 Interview 1,2

13 Interview 7,8

14 Interview 1,2,25,26,29,34

15 Interview 1,2,6,7,8,10

16 Interview 7,8,10

17 Interview 25,26,29,34

18 Interview 1,11

19 Interview 1,2,4,7,10

20 Interview 10

21 Interview 12,14

22 Interview 13

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthias Galan

Matthias Galan is a doctoral student at the department of Ecological Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. His research interests are energy access in the Global South, technology governance and global production networks.