Industry Commits ₹3,590 Crore to Accelerate India’s Decarbonisation Journey – Indian PSU

Industry has committed ₹3,590 crore in fresh investments towards energy efficiency and decarbonisation, as the 25th CII Energy Efficiency Summit 2026 brought together policymakers, industry leaders, technology providers, academia and sustainability experts to discuss the next phase of India’s transition towards a net-zero economy.

The investments will focus on electrification, process improvement, waste-heat recovery, digitalisation, IoT and artificial intelligence, underlining the growing role of technology and energy efficiency in reducing industrial emissions while improving competitiveness.

The summit also saw the launch of the India Heat Pump Atlas – The National Installation Insights Dashboard, developed under the CII Heat Pump Alliance. The platform brings together installation data from 13 technology partners and provides a national view of heat-pump deployment across industrial and commercial applications.

The Atlas covers 2,201 installations with a combined capacity of 288 MW, comprising 1,063 industrial and 1,138 commercial installations.

Heat pumps are already being deployed across sectors including automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, food, electronics, paper and petrochemicals. Applications include hot water, process heating, drying, steam generation and boiler-feed-water heating.

The Atlas also identifies 34 industrial installations operating at temperatures of 100°C or above, with applications reaching 140°C, highlighting the potential of heat pumps in industrial process heating.

Energy efficiency central to industrial competitiveness

Krushna Chandra Panigrahy, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, said the next phase of India’s growth would require energy to remain affordable and reliable, with energy efficiency and electrification playing a central role in meeting rising demand.

He said adoption of energy-efficiency measures among MSMEs needs to accelerate and pointed to the ADEETIE scheme as a mechanism to address barriers relating to technical capability, financing and operating costs.

Panigrahy also highlighted the need to advance industrial electrification, heat pumps, building efficiency, sustainable transportation, e-cooking and efficient cooling to support India’s Net Zero 2070 and Viksit Bharat 2047 goals.

“Energy efficiency should not be seen as a compliance requirement, but as a pathway to global competitiveness,” he said, adding that India needs to use energy efficiently, electrify where technically viable and progressively power electricity with cleaner sources.

AI emerging as an efficiency tool for MSMEs

Tejpreet Singh Chopra, Chairman, CII Energy Efficiency Summit 2026 and Founder & CEO, BLP-Industry.AI, highlighted the potential of artificial intelligence and digital technologies to accelerate energy-efficiency improvements, particularly among MSMEs.

He noted that MSMEs contribute more than 30% of India’s GDP, over 33% of manufacturing output and close to 50% of exports, making energy-efficiency gains across the sector significant for India’s broader transition.

According to Chopra, AI can help MSMEs identify inefficiencies, optimise processes and make data-driven decisions despite limited technical resources.

“The opportunity is not AI versus workers, but AI plus workers — augmenting human expertise and accelerating India’s journey towards a Net Zero economy,” he said.

₹5,700 crore invested, ₹7,100 crore savings

P V Kiran Ananth, Executive Director – Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy & Green Entrepreneurship, CII Godrej GBC, said energy efficiency remains one of the most cost-effective tools available for industrial decarbonisation.

He said the 27th National Award for Excellence in Energy Management highlighted the scale of the opportunity, with 720 industry respondents investing around ₹5,700 crore over the past three years and achieving savings of more than ₹7,100 crore.

“Within just one year, participating companies have committed another ₹3,590 crore of investment towards electrification, process improvement, waste-heat recovery, digitalisation, IoT and AI,” Ananth said.

He also stressed the importance of improving the productivity of existing renewable-energy assets, noting that even a 1% improvement in renewable-asset performance could generate additional output without requiring new investment.

The summit’s discussions covered energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification and decarbonisation, with participants examining emerging policies, financing mechanisms, technologies and international best practices.

Sessions also focused on scalable clean-energy technologies, innovation-to-impact models, technology adoption and measurable reductions in energy consumption and emissions.

The summit concluded with discussions on the role of academia in moving clean technologies from laboratories to the market, including technology validation, entrepreneurship, industry-academia collaboration and technology transfer.