Milk, Water, Electrons
Milk, water and electrons look like three different
stories. They are one story told three times: the country builds ahead of schedule, and what the citizen receives lags behind.
Tag: Renewable Energy
Viksit Bharat Needs Firm Power: Why Fusion Must Be in India’s Energy Plan Now
India’s electricity demand will nearly quadruple by 2047. Solar and wind cannot carry that load alone. The time to build the next generation of baseload is not 2040 — it is today and why fusion must be a strong part of it.
India’s electricity demand will nearly quadruple by 2047. Solar and wind cannot carry that load alone. The time to build the next generation of baseload is not 2040 — it is today.
Disclosure: The author is co-founder of ASPL Fusion, a private Indian fusion company. This article presents an industry perspective on national energy policy. The policy arguments are grounded in publicly available data; the ASPL programme description in Section 5 is provided as a concrete illustration of what a domestic fusion development path can look like in practice.
At a Glance — For Decision-Makers
708 GW peak demand and 2,100 GW total capacity needed by 2047 — the equivalent of building a new US power grid from scratch.
Intermittent renewables alone cannot provide firm power — grid stability requires large-scale dispatchable baseload even with abundant storage.
Fusion now has serious private capital behind it: Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI are structuring power purchase agreements with fusion companies. India risks being a technology importer.
Three budget-cycle asks for 2026: fusion in National Energy Plan · dedicated component development fund · AERB regulatory engagement mandate.
Key Number
India’s Central Electricity Authority projects peak power demand reaching 708 GW by 2047 — four times today’s installed capacity. Meeting it requires 2,100 GW of generation: close to the entire current installed capacity of the US and EU combined. That is the scale of infrastructure build India must manage across the next two decades.