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					</table><p>Energy-efficient, grid-interactive buildings (EGIB) can help manage peak power demand, improve system flexibility, and enable large-scale integration of renewable energy to address grid strain caused by rising building energy demand in India, according to an International Energy Agency (<a href="https://www.iea.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IEA</a>) report.</p>
<p><strong>Energy Demand from Buildings</strong></p>
<p>India’s buildings sector, which accounts for over one-third of total energy consumption, is projected to see demand rise from 8 exajoules (EJ) in 2023 to nearly 11 EJ by 2050. Homes account for 90% of the energy demand from buildings.</p>
<p>Energy demand from buildings in the country experienced an annual growth rate of approximately 2% since 2010.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-93293 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India.png" alt="Total final energy consumption in buildings in India" width="895" height="532" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India.png 895w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India-300x178.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India-768x457.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India-650x386.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India-624x371.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Total-final-energy-consumption-in-buildings-in-India-600x357.png 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 895px) 100vw, 895px" /></a></p>
<p>The total floor area of buildings grew at an annual average of 2.7% between 2010 and 2023. India is expected to add one billion square meters of newly built space every year over the next decade.</p>
<p>The expanding floor space, along with the increasing use of appliances, has driven up energy demand across residential and commercial spaces. Currently, electricity accounts for nearly 30% of building energy use.</p>
<p>Building electrification is projected to rise to over 5% annually through 2030. Cooling is a significant driver of energy demand. Roughly 20% of Indian households have air conditioners (ACs), compared with 90% in the U.S. and Japan. However, cooling demand in the country is expected to grow considerably.</p>
<p>In 2024, 14 million AC units were sold in India. The report estimates that another 130 million to 150 million AC units could be sold between 2025 and 2030.</p>
<p>These developments are expected to strain India’s energy infrastructure by increasing peak load, straining power generation and transmission capacity, and requiring costly grid upgrades and flexibility solutions to maintain stability.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-93295 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050.png" alt="Peak electricity demand in buildings in India and contributions by end-use, 220-2050" width="886" height="628" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050.png 886w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050-300x213.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050-768x544.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050-650x461.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050-624x442.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Peak-electricity-demand-in-buildings-in-India-and-contributions-by-end-use-220-2050-600x425.png 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 886px) 100vw, 886px" /></a></p>
<p>Further, the country’s renewable energy capacity is expected to increase to over 550 GW by 2030, nearly triple the 2022 level.</p>
<p>Variable renewable energy (VRE), primarily solar and wind power, will drive this growth. Power generation from these sources is expected to account for almost 90% of India’s renewable energy capacity by 2030.</p>
<p>VRE accounted for 11% of total power generation in 2023. IEA projects this share to increase to over 20% by 2030. With VRE supply varying with the weather, India will need greater flexibility in the power system through initiatives such as leveraging dispatchable generation, enhancing the grid, and increasing storage and demand response capabilities.</p>
<p><strong>Enablers for EBIG</strong></p>
<p>IEA highlights the core enablers needed to transform buildings into EGIBs. It classifies these enablers into six categories: energy efficiency, decarbonization, smartness, materials, resilience, and building-to-grid interaction.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-93296 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings.png" alt="Enablers for efficient grid-interactive buildings" width="892" height="538" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings.png 892w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings-300x181.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings-768x463.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings-650x392.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings-624x376.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Enablers-for-efficient-grid-interactive-buildings-600x362.png 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 892px) 100vw, 892px" /></a></p>
<p>The report states that enhancing energy efficiency measures could eliminate approximately 25% of new energy demand by 2030 and over 50% by 2050. The key tools for improving energy efficiency in buildings would include energy conservation and sustainability codes; retrofit programs that promote upgrades to insulation, glazing, air-conditioning, and ventilation systems; and improved appliance standards.</p>
<p>Notably, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/bees-new-building-code-could-boost-solar-adoption-in-commercial-buildings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> the Energy Conservation and Sustainable Building Code (ECSBC) 2024, which establishes standards to enhance energy efficiency in commercial and office buildings. A key feature of the code is its emphasis on enabling solar integration at the design stage, encouraging developers to account for renewable energy systems early in the project planning process.</p>
<p>Some states have begun introducing provisions to help integrate sustainable energy technology into buildings. According to the report, decarbonization initiatives would focus on integrating rooftop solar and on-site storage projects. While India has made significant progress in deploying renewable energy, the country has adopted limited distributed storage. This limited adoption constrains buildings&#8217; ability to manage energy variability and provide grid flexibility.</p>
<p>To help accelerate decarbonization, the IEA recommends stronger incentives for building-level renewables and storage installations, better grid standards, and flexible business models that enable customers to monetize demand.</p>
<p>Initiatives under the smartness category will be driven by digital infrastructure. The report highlights the increasing rollout of smart meters and energy management systems under national programs are enabling real-time energy optimization and demand response. Under the materials category, the report notes that India is beginning to integrate embodied carbon into building design, driven by voluntary rating systems, fly ash utilization policies, and local initiatives. However, progress in this integration is limited by insufficient data, a lack of life-cycle assessment methods, and the absence of standards and benchmarks for low-carbon materials.</p>
<p>India has introduced multiple resilience measures through building codes, cooling policies, and state-level cool-roof initiatives. However, the report states that these efforts remain fragmented across policies, and the lack of a unified national framework limits the large-scale adoption of climate-resilient building practices.</p>
<p>According to IEA, India has experienced progress in smart meters, time-of-day tariffs, demand response pilots, distributed energy resource (DER) aggregation, and vehicle-to-grid systems. It expects that strengthening data governance, standards, and incentives will significantly help scale grid-interactive buildings.</p>
<p><strong>EGIB Progress in India</strong></p>
<p>The report states that India has made significant progress in enabling EGIBs. However, it observes some issues in the implementation of regulatory initiatives such as building energy codes, smart meter rollout, efficiency standards, and interoperability due to a lack of standard protocols, fragmented systems, weak DER integration despite strong aggregation, and the absence of mandatory regulatory frameworks. The report notes pilot projects such as the Tata Power Delhi Distribution and Honeywell automated demand response pilot, highlighting the potential of demand-side flexibility. This pilot connected 160 buildings and delivered peak load reductions of up to 11 MW and a demand reduction of approximately 10% during grid stress events. However, replication of such pilot projects has been slow.</p>
<p><strong>Policy Push to Scale EGIB Adoption</strong></p>
<p>To accelerate EGIB adoption, the report recommends instituting a national policy that integrates regulations, incentives, and information tools across the building lifecycle. It also calls for strengthening building energy codes, specifically expanding coverage and enforcement, and introducing retrofitting requirements.</p>
<p>Scaling rooftop solar and battery storage will be critical for accelerating EGIB adoption. These initiatives must be supported by financial incentives and grid interconnection standards.</p>
<p>The report also calls for achieving a nationwide smart meter rollout by 2028, along with a broader deployment of digital infrastructure to enable real-time energy management.</p>
<p>It states that unlocking demand flexibility will require time-of-use dynamic tariffs, stronger demand response programs, and enabling participation of building owners, households, commercial consumers, and aggregators in VPPs and aggregation markets.</p>
<p>The report highlights the importance of innovation, including support for DER aggregation, AI-based energy management, and vehicle-to-grid integration.</p>


Grid-Interactive Buildings Key to Managing India’s Energy Surge: IEA


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					</table><p>Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (<a href="https://www.kit.edu/english/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KIT</a>) are studying the use of semi-transparent photovoltaics with precisely adjustable absorption properties, which would increase the overall efficiency of solar panels.</p>
<p>The project establishes that by combining new materials with targeted component design, the absorption of incident light in precisely defined spectral ranges can be achieved with a semi-transparent solar cell.</p>
<p>Organic solar cells use carbon-based semiconductors, typically characterized by narrow-band absorption ranges, making them the best suitable option for use on glass windows of buildings and in agriculture.</p>
<p>The new material concepts and innovations in organic semiconductors are paving ways to achieve higher application-specific efficiency.</p>
<p>Organic semiconductors enable controlling the absorption properties of organic solar cells, according to Christian Sprau from KIT’s Light Technology Institute.</p>
<p>For example, Sprau explained, “In agrivoltaics, only the wavelengths required for growth have to reach the plants, whereas they can be protected from other spectral components of the light and thus be prevented from drying out. On the other hand, the window front of a high-rise building only has to let through the light that the human eye perceives as brightness. In both cases, high energy harvests can be achieved simultaneously with the unused portions of the sunlight.”</p>
<p>With the development of novel acceptors &#8212; the electron-accepting molecules in the light-absorbing layer of solar cells &#8212; scientists have achieved up to 20% efficiencies in laboratory settings.</p>
<p>The KIT researchers further claimed that double use of space by photovoltaics would play an important role in enabling Germany and Europe to achieve climate neutrality in good time.</p>
<p>In a similar study aimed at improving organic solar cells’ efficiency to maintain long-term stability, scientists at the University of California <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/rigid-electron-polymer-organic-solar-cells" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that addressing the issue of electron donor polymer chain twisting can enable these cells to produce affordable and efficient energy over the long term.</p>
<p>Earlier, a team of material scientists at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering in California <a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/roof-organic-solar-cells-greenhouse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designed</a> a solar roof with semi-transparent solar cells for a miniature greenhouse prototype, producing sufficient energy from sunlight to grow plants or crops.</p>


Translucent Organic Solar Cells Can be Designed to Absorb Narrow Light Band


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					</table><p>In a new three-year collaborative study between the Wales-based <a href="https://www.swansea.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Swansea University</a> and <a href="https://www.tatasteeleurope.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tata Steel U.K.</a>, researchers found that perovskite solar panels can be printed on steel atop establishments using screen printing which allows direct deployment of solar on the surface rather than using any other base.</p>
<p>The rooftop solar would enable buildings to generate, store and release their own secure supply of electricity. This would reduce reliance on fossil fuel energy such as gas, and ease pressure on the National Grid, especially as surplus power generated by a building can be used to charge up electric vehicles.</p>
<p>Active Building is a concept pioneered by the UK-based Innovation and Knowledge Centre <a href="https://www.specific.eu.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SPECIFIC</a> which designed and has built offices and classrooms with Active solar systems. An Active solar system-enabled building supports a wider grid network by smartly integrating renewable energy technologies to generate, store, and release heat and electricity.</p>
<p>An Active Building operates on six basic principles: Building fabric and passive design; Energy efficient systems with performance monitoring; On-site renewable energy generation; Energy storage; Electric vehicle integration; and Smartly managing the integration with micro-grids and national energy network.</p>
<p>Swansea University already has two operational Active Buildings on its campus for the past few years. The results encouraged the collaboration to explore the potential of this technology further and speed up the process of turning the Active solar system into products for industrial-scale manufacturing.</p>
<p>Head of materials science and engineering at Swansea University Dave Worsley said, “We know the concept works as we’ve demonstrated it in our Active Buildings in sunny Swansea. This new collaboration with Tata Steel will enable us to develop its potential more quickly, identifying new types of steel products that actively work to generate electricity.”</p>
<p>“These printable solar cells can be built into the fabric of our homes, shops, and offices, allowing them to generate the power they need. It would also ease the pressure on national electricity networks, for example by enabling us to charge up electric vehicles with surplus energy generated by our homes,” he said.</p>
<p>Tata Steel UK’s R&amp;D Director Sumitesh Das said, “The combination of a ‘green’ solar technology with steel is a significant step in our net zero ambitions. We are buoyant with the possibilities that the perovskite technology brings to the table – especially in integration to the building and construction solutions – across different value streams in Tata Steel.”</p>
<p>Conventional solar cells manufactured from crystalline silicon consume ample energy during the production phase, while they are heavier than perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that can be produced utilizing locally available materials. The manufacturing process of solar panels using PSCs emits less than half the carbon compared to traditional solar cells.</p>
<p>Crucially, another advantage of PSCs over silicon is that they are flexible rather than rigid. This means they can be printed, using techniques such as screen printing, directly onto a material such as coated steel. This opens the door to creating innovative steel products for use in the construction industry that have built-in solar generating technology.</p>
<p>Perovskite solar cells offer a vast scope for researchers worldwide to <a href="https://mercomindia.com/2d-cations-tin-lead-perovskite-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> its implementation in solar panels to capture the solar spectrum to generate and store energy. Experts are also conducting experiments to understand certain criteria that lead to low performance in PSCs.</p>
<p>One such research was <a href="https://mercomindia.com/scientists-use-green-solvent-to-achieve-perovskite-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiated</a> by researchers at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), Germany who coated a large area of PSCs with a green solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and achieved a power conversion efficiency of 16.7%.</p>


New Research Shows Perovskite Solar Panels can be Printed on Steel Atop Buildings

<p>RT Koytango Private Limited, a part of <a href="https://hriman.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hriman Motors LLP</a>, is setting up free electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in New Delhi, connected to grid tied rooftop solar power projects. It has secured numerous green funds for this objective, the company announced today.</p>
<p>The solar charging stations will offer 100 percent free EV charging to every vehicle in the national capital.</p>
<p>To set up the rooftop solar plant with the charging station, any business, school, college, office, factory with a minimum of 100 kW load and 10,000 square-feet rooftop space will be eligible. This entire set up will be free of cost. Charging for all electric vehicles will also be free for three years.</p>
<p>“Even if we assume 80 percent of EV will charge at night at home, 20 percent will need the top-up charging when out on the road. Average charging time for per vehicle will be approximately 2 hours. Therefore, we need to make sure that charging stations come to the vehicle rather than vehicle going to the charging station”, said Rushen Chahal, one of the founders of RT Koytango in a press release.</p>
<p>The program is also available for commercial buildings. This initiative will help reduce electricity bills by 20 percent and offer EV charging to building staff and employees.</p>
<p>Two other RT Koytango Private founders,  Mrinalini Kapoor and Raninder K Chahal, commented, “It is a known fact that day time usage in Delhi is over 6 GWs and this can be compensated to a great extent using solar. What remains to be understood is that the local Delhi grid will not be able to take the additional load of charging 0.2-0.5 million electric vehicles. Hence power, or rather green power, needs to be generated exactly where the charging is happening.”</p>
<p>Currently, Delhi has over 400 square kms of rooftop space available and solar penetration is under 1 percent. Even if 25 percent of the space is utilized, 3 to 4 GW of power can be generated.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.com/delhi-budget-ev-fleet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Delhi</a> will soon have the world’s second largest fleet of electric buses after China. In its budget for the financial year (FY) for 2018-19, the Delhi government had announced that 1,000 electric buses will soon be introduced in the national capital.</p>
<p>Increasingly, more states are preparing for a wider penetration of EVs as an intelligent and sustainable mode of communication. <a href="https://mercomindia.com/states-poised-lead-ev-revolution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In a recent report</a>, Mercom highlighted India’s potential EV hot spots.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.com/ministry-of-power-no-license-ev-charge-station/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Recently,</a> the Ministry of Power has issued a clarification stating that no license is required to operate electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in India. This is a positive news for the sector and is expected to boost the participation of more private players in the creation of EV charging station infrastructure across the country.</p>
<p>In a bid to propel the growth of EVs in the country, the government also <a href="https://mercomindia.com/gst-li-ion-batteries-reduced-from-28-to-18-percent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a slash in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate on lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries.</p>
<p>Image credit: By Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz) [<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>], from Wikimedia Commons</p>


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