India has one of the world's highest redemption rates of international renewable energy certificates (I-RECs), but further growth could be achieved if demand can diversify beyond technology multinationals to supply chain firms and local companies, participants heard at the India I-Track Day 2026 conference on 11 September.
About 30pc of total Indian I-REC demand has come from three multinational companies, said Neda Arifi, business development director at Xpansiv, which manages the global I-REC registry. More broadly, multinationals are linked to 77pc of I-REC demand in the country.
By sector, software and IT services firms account for 18.3pc of I-RECs used in India, in contrast to the global trend where primarily sectors such as mining and oil and gas drive demand. Distributors followed at 9.9pc, and automobile components firms at 5.2pc.
"There is high concentration in demand: demand is concentrated in one sector, software services, and demand is concentrated with a few multinational groups mainly in the technology sector," Arifi said.
Meanwhile, 4.5pc of demand in India has been for Scope 3 emissions reductions, an "early signal" that the supply chain is joining the I-REC market, Arifi said.
Use of I-RECs by supply chain and local firms would represent a "huge opportunity for the India market to grow" because the country's economy is based on export and manufacturing, she said.
"[The] total addressable market is moving, not just from the brands that you are currently focused on, but a much larger component — the value chain," said Roble Velasco-Rosenheim, director of partnerships and Asia Pacific at the I-Track Foundation, which implements the I-REC scheme.
"For the upstream and downstream components, we're seeing upwards of 10 times the load [of the brands themselves]," Velasco-Rosenheim said.
India was approved for issuing I-RECs in 2016, as one of the early-movers of the scheme. It remains one of the largest markets, currently second by registered generating capacity globally.
High redemptions, falling prices
India's I-REC redemption rates are one of the highest in the world, Arifi said, recently at around 89pc redeemed for 2024 vintage certificates and 85pc for 2025 vintage certificates.
But Indian I-REC prices have been falling. Argus assessed current-year Indian solar and wind I-RECs at an average of $0.50/MWh in August, down from $0.69/MWh in January, and $0.89/MWh in January 2025.
"Sellers should think twice before selling their [certificates] at a cheaper rate, since the demand growth is present and the market is not very oversupplied," environmental commodities firm EKI Energy Services' chairman and managing director, Manish Dabkara, said. Independent power provider coalitions could also help to raise prices on the selling side of I-RECs, Dabkara said.
The low cost of I-RECs could spur companies to engage more in corporate sustainability in a "cost-conscious" country such as India, renewables developer Blueleaf Energy's head of investments in India, Daanish Varma, said.
Renewables developers are not concerned about I-REC pricing because it is a small part of the revenue stack for solar plants, Varma said. But Varma said it is "disappointing" that wind I-RECs in India command similar prices to solar I-RECs, given the former is harder to build. He also called for granular intraday I-RECs, so that battery storage players could buy lower-cost daytime solar I-RECs and sell evening peak-period clean discharge certificates at a premium to boost project revenue.
Xpansiv expects 18.7TWh of I-RECs to be redeemed in India this year, and 24-25TWh in 2027, up from 14.2TWh in 2025.
