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A common blueprint for India's industrial heat electrification

Vrinda Gupta, Srinivas Ethiraj10 August 2026
AI generated · reviewed by TIE

This is an opinion piece by two energy-transition researchers, Vrinda Gupta and Srinivas Ethiraj. Their argument is that India's next big step must be to electrify industrial heat — the heat factories use for dyeing, drying, boiling and distilling, which today mostly comes from burning coal, oil or gas inside the plant. They point to solar power, where tariffs fell by more than 85% over a decade, and say that happened because policy, financing, competitive vendors, mandates and private investment all moved together — so industrial heat will need the same coordinated push rather than a single scheme. They then set out six things India should do, beginning with measuring what a factory actually uses before replacing any equipment. One caution for the reader: all six are the authors' recommendations, not a programme that has been announced or funded.

Where this sits

  • GS3Infrastructure — energy; the industrial demand side of the energy transition
  • GS3Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation; climate change and decarbonising hard-to-abate industry
  • GS3Indian economy — MSMEs, manufacturing competitiveness and industrial policy
  • GS3Science and technology — indigenisation and developments in energy technology
  • EssayEnergy security and sustainable development; technology and the economy

Points discussed

  1. Industrial heat is the next phase

    India's energy transition has already reached mobility, solar irrigation and buildings. The authors argue the next phase lies in electrifying industrial heat, particularly across MSMEs, to strengthen manufacturing competitiveness, energy security and decarbonisation.

  2. Solar's fall as the model to copy

    Solar tariffs fell by more than 85% over the past decade through a coordinated ecosystem — supportive national and State policy, innovative financing, competitive vendors and markets, institutional mandates and sustained private investment. The authors argue scaling industrial heat electrification needs a similar approach rather than any single intervention.

  3. Factories cannot see their own heat

    Most industries have limited visibility of their thermal systems beyond fuel consumption: steam flow is rarely metered, process temperatures often unmonitored, and waste heat streams unquantified. Without robust engineering assessments, industries risk investing in technologies unsuited to their process requirements.

  4. Measure and recover before electrifying

    Assessments should evaluate legacy boiler performance and operating costs, optimise steam systems, identify recoverable waste heat, and where feasible replace steam with more efficient direct heating before electrification. Process integration tools such as pinch analysis should identify internal heat recovery opportunities first.

  5. No single technology fits

    Because processes vary widely in temperature and schedule, the authors call for a technology-inclusive approach. Heat pumps suit low and medium temperatures especially where waste heat can be recovered, electric boilers offer a practical pathway for steam above 200 °C, mechanical vapour recompression reuses process vapour, and thermal energy storage acts as a buffer.

  6. Delivered cost, not generation tariff

    Although renewable generation costs have fallen dramatically, the delivered cost of renewable electricity for industry remains influenced by network charges, open-access provisions and other transaction costs. The authors want open access streamlined, banking provisions rationalised and grid infrastructure strengthened.

  7. MSMEs lack capital and expertise

    The principal challenge extends beyond technology to reducing engineering and investment risks, particularly for MSMEs with limited access to capital and technical expertise. Technology leasing, heat-as-a-service, energy service company models, blended finance and cluster-level demand aggregation are proposed to address this.

  8. Skills and demonstrations before mandates

    Most vocational training focuses on routine operations and maintenance, whereas this requires an engineering transition on the shop floor. The authors want first-of-a-kind demonstration projects across representative sectors, temperatures and clusters before large-scale mandates, pulled together by a national framework delivered through district and cluster-level plans.

Summary and analysis are written by The Insight Express and reviewed before publishing. We link to the original report; we do not reproduce it.