Assessing the Cost of Land Conflicts and the Potential of Responsible Siting to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment

India is in the midst of one of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy expansions. As of March 2026, it has installed approximately 283.46 GW of renewable capacity, including 150.26 GW of solar and 56.09 GW of wind, making it the world’s third-largest solar market and fourth in total renewable energy capacity. To meet its 2030 targets, India is expected to add nearly 50 GW of new renewable capacity annually over the next five years.

As the country works toward these goals, the pace and scale of deployment will depend not just on finance and technology, but on how effectively land and resource-use decisions are made. Utility-scale solar and wind projects require large, contiguous land parcels, making siting decisions a critical determinant of project timelines, costs, and long-term sustainability.

When these decisions are made with limited information on land tenure, ecological sensitivity, or local resource use, projects can face delays linked to land access, community concerns, and regulatory processes. The Renewable Energy Conflict Database has recorded 42 such ongoing conflicts, affecting nearly 23.3 GW of capacity, with over 7 GW stalled—impacting investments worth ₹77,530 crore.

We are now initiating a new research collaboration with The Nature Conservancy to examine this intersection more closely. The study will explore a central but often overlooked question: how land-related challenges influence renewable energy project timelines and costs; and how better siting decisions might help reduce these risks and accelerate the transition.

At the core of this work is a systematic effort to quantify what is often treated as an intangible risk. The study will assess how land-related challenges translate into time delays and financial costs across projects, and examine whether these challenges are linked to avoidable siting decisions such as misclassification of commons, gaps in tenure due diligence, or limited ecological and community assessments.

It will also document how developers currently approach siting and risk mitigation, and evaluate whether tools like SiteRight could help identify high-risk locations earlier in the planning process and avoid conflicts. By bringing together developer insights, community perspectives, and empirical conflict data, the research aims to build evidence on how responsible siting practices can reduce risk, improve predictability, and support faster, more sustainable renewable energy deployment.

We’ll be sharing insights as the work progresses.

About Nutgraph Social Data Lab

Nutgraph Social Data Lab is a research and data analytics organization that focuses on land governance, infrastructure development, and resource-use transitions in India. Backed by a network of interdisciplinary researchers spread across geographies, it produces data-driven insights from the ground, using innovative research methods, to help organisations and institutions drive social change. Its flagship initiative, Land Conflict Watch (LCW), maintains India’s largest database on land-related disputes, documenting and tracking 1,500+ verified cases across sectors, including renewable energy.

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About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental nonprofit working to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. For over 70 years, TNC has brought together people, science, and solutions to create a world where both people and nature can thrive.

Guided by India’s vision to “develop without destruction,” TNC in India works with governments, research institutions, and communities to deliver science-based, scalable solutions that strengthen resilience, secure freshwater, transform agriculture, accelerate renewable energy, and harness nature’s power to address climate change.

Together with our partners, we are helping shape a more sustainable and resilient future — for India, and for the planet.