Home -

Centre for Sustainable Energy & Mobility

The transportation sector is the second major contributor to the energy sector’s CO₂ emissions and environmental concerns, and is heavily dependent on imported oil, leading to an annual import burden of approximately $158 billion, impacting both economic stability and energy security. Globally, energy and mobility are undergoing an unprecedented transformation. The shift in the energy sector is being driven by two fundamental changes:

(i) Transition from fossil fuel-based energy generation to renewable sources, complemented by wider adoption of energy storage solutions, and
(ii) Development of a decentralised, smart, and resilient grid in the electricity sector.

Likewise, in mobility, transition towards sustainability is primarily driven by the deployment of cleaner fuels; while electrification remains a key sustainable alternative for road transport and railways, the shipping and aviation sectors are exploring hydrogen, ammonia and biofuels as an alternate fuel source. Sustainable urban mobility also needs compatible urban design, connected mobility options, and shift from private to shared mobility. The overall future of mobility is expected to be connected, autonomous, shared, and involving use of renewable energy resources.

Transformation Themes and Solutions

There are several solution alternatives that need to be adopted for successfully completing the above-mentioned transition. These solution alternatives will evolve further from technology innovation, urban planning, digital transformation, and data analytics. They will also come by creating different business models to attract private enterprises and by designing the right policy framework to be adopted by government agencies and ULBs. Such solution alternatives need to be objectively compared and evaluated based on their life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and commercial viability. Social impact, technical maturity, and availability of underlying resources are other key considerations to compare different alternative pathways. Suitability of solution alternatives also depends on biogeography of the deployment and due care needs to be taken to adapt these solutions to the prevailing environment. Apart from identifying the most appropriate solutions for sustainable energy and mobility, such solutions also need to be implemented rapidly and at scale. Such faster adoption and scale-up is possible through the STEP Framework, as defined by Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar and Dr. Ravi Pandit in their book Leapfrogging to Pole-vaulting: Creating the Magic of Radical and Sustainable Transformation, where Social, Technological, Economic and Policy (STEP) lenses are used to identify, implement, and scale any radical transformation.

What we do at C-SEM

The mission of the Centre for Sustainable Energy and Mobility (C-SEM) is to enable faster transition to sustainable energy and mobility solutions by facilitating the deployment of specific bio-geographic solutions at scale. We do this by applying our multidisciplinary knowledge of technology, engineering, and economics. The following are the values which form the basis of our shared ideals and bind us together:

Integrated/Holistic approach
Innovation
Pragmatism
Courage
Complement and Collaborate
Transparent, just, and fair

Along with our mission and our commitment to excellence in all we do, these values articulate who we are and what we believe in, influence our goals, guide our actions, and help us to explain our aspirations to others. We remain focussed in solving challenges associated with energy and mobility within the Indian context. Apart from making policy recommendations for government agencies, we build and recommend commercially viable models that attract interest and investments from private participants and impact investors. Therefore, we expect our recommendations will be more practical, implementable, operable, impactful, and also commercially self-sustainable. The centre is currently actively engaged in several pioneering projects and policy research activities in areas of electric vehicles, expansion of charging infrastructure, and assessment and research of alternative unconventional energy sources like tidal, and micro hydro and geothermal energy sources. We are also in the process of conducting an in-depth analysis of the battery recycling value chain across three critical segments—consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and stationary storage, aiming to enhance circular economy practices and promote sustainable resource utilisation. We are committed to collectively contribute to creating a cleaner, more efficient, and future-ready energy and mobility ecosystem in India. .