Renewable Pioneers: How Karnataka’s rapid transition was achieved

Multiple giant screens dot the walls of the control room at Karnataka’s State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) in Bengaluru, glowing with live data streams—demand curves, frequency charts, transmission schedules. This monitoring centre under Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) was once a passive observational unit but is now an analytical command hub. It monitors, in real time, the state’s power scenario—shortages, surges, demands, distribution and energy mix.

State government officials claim that till 2015, power cuts lasted one to two hours daily even in major cities like Bengaluru and up to six hours in rural areas. Hydropower, once the state’s mainstay, dwindled due to erratic rainfall. Thermal plants faced endless construction delays, leaving industries struggling, political tempers flaring and public patience wearing thin.

Almost overnight, the state flipped the switch. It turned to solar power and started building a monumental facility—Pavagada Solar Park—in Tumakuru district, where a sea of mirrors now turns sunlight into 2 GW of power. “The first phase was commissioned in 2017, with full operations by 2019. At that point, we were not bothered about price. We went left, right and centre with tendering; the priority was to become surplus at any cost,” recalls P Ravi Kumar, chairperson of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), to Down To Earth (DTE).

Built over 5,260 hectares, Pavagada was a first-of-its-kind solar project in India where the government took land “from 2,300 farmers on a 25-year lease” for “a rent of R21,000 per acre [1 acre equals 0.4 ha], and the “amount may be increased by 5% every two years”, as per the Tumakuru district official website. Developed by Karnataka Solar Power Development Corporation Limited (KSPDCL)—a joint venture between Karnataka Rene-wable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI)—Pavagada transformed the drought-hit Tumakuru district into one of the world’s largest solar parks.

Karnataka soon started setting up smaller, 200 MW-per-taluk projects, ensuring generation was geographically distributed and implementation was fast. Projects came online within two years of tender, says Kumar. By 2019, Karnataka had flipped from power-deficit to power-surplus, with addition of RE ...

This article was originally published as part of the cover story Powering transition in the March 16-31, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth