How Renewable Energy Can Revolutionize India’s Real Estate Sector

This guide by RMI explores renewable energy (RE) procurement strategies for the Indian real estate sector, using the developer Lodha as a primary example. It details how different stakeholders—developers, co-operative societies, residential users, and commercial tenants—can utilize mechanisms such as net metering, green tariffs, open access, and virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) to reduce Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions and align with India's national net-zero goals.

• India has established national climate commitments including achieving net-zero emissions by 2070, reducing economy emissions intensity by 45 percent from 2005 levels by the end of the current decade, and transitioning 50 percent of cumulative electric power installed capacity to non-fossil fuel-based energy resources.
• The real estate developer Lodha is implementing a strategy to eliminate its Scope 2 emissions using a mix of on-site and off-site renewable energy pathways. This includes the use of net metering, the Green Tariff mechanism, and open access. While open access was previously limited to consumers with loads greater than 1 megawatt, new "Green Energy Open Access" rules from the Ministry of Power have lowered this threshold to 100 kW.
• Lodha is exploring advanced procurement mechanisms to ensure consistent energy supply and financial benefits, including round-the-clock (RTC) purchase options to manage source variability and virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs). Under a VPPA, the consumer receives green energy credits from an independent power producer (IPP) via a power exchange; if the market rate exceeds the contract price, the IPP pays the difference to the consumer.
• Different real estate users face distinct challenges and opportunities for renewable adoption: residential high-rises (20–25 stories) can often power common areas via rooftop solar and net metering; commercial tenants can use green tariffs or open access (if loads exceed 1 MW); and industrial/warehousing tenants can often switch completely to RE via net metering due to available roof space.
• Additional market-based and structural mechanisms for decarbonization include the green term-ahead market (GTAM) for short-term trading of green power without long-term agreements, the purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs) via power exchanges, and the potential for developers to act as integrated energy services providers (IESP) or implement green leases.

APA

RMI (2023). How Renewable Energy Can Revolutionize India’s Real Estate Sector. https://rmi.org/resources/how-renewable-energy-can-revolutionize-indias-real-estate-sector/

Chicago

RMI. How Renewable Energy Can Revolutionize India’s Real Estate Sector. 2023. https://rmi.org/resources/how-renewable-energy-can-revolutionize-indias-real-estate-sector/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=How Renewable Energy Can Revolutionize India’s Real Estate Sector |date=27 March 2023 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/how-renewable-energy-can-revolutionize-indias-real-estate-sector/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2023how, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{How Renewable Energy Can Revolutionize India’s Real Estate Sector}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/how-renewable-energy-can-revolutionize-indias-real-estate-sector/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }