Innovating for energy efficiency: a perspective from India

While it is well-understood that technological innovation offers much potential to meet sustainability challenges, realising this potential is not a trivial task. This is especially true in developing countries where resource and institutional limitations often impede innovation. This paper focuses on energy efficiency, increasingly recognised as a linchpin of a sustainable energy system, and through a set of case studies on energy-efficiency programmes in India, draws out lessons for innovation for sustainability, paying particular attention to the issue of ‘scale-up,’ which is key to a meaningful transition towards sustainability. We suggest that effective sustainability-oriented innovation must be rooted in the local context, prioritising local needs, identifying potential technological solutions, and then designing programmes that address the necessary elements of the innovation chain to ensure delivery at scale. Further, we suggest that such a process can be greatly facilitated by a coordinating agency (a ‘system operator’) with a bird's-eye view of the target system.