Balancing India's energy trilemma: Assessing the role of renewable energy and green technology innovation for sustainable development

The energy trilemma, which includes energy security, affordability, and sustainability, is vital for India's path towards green development. A practical assessment of the energy trilemma's level is crucial for assessing the current state of India's energy landscape and making substantial progress towards Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13. Based on time series data from 1990 to 2021, this paper investigates the direct and indirect effect of renewable energy use and green technology innovation on India's energy trilemma by using the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DYNARDL) simulation model. Our findings indicate that renewable energy use impacts the energy trilemma positively in both the short and long run. However, the effect of green technology on energy trilemma is positive but insignificant, suggesting the need for further technological advancement. The mediation analysis highlights that environmental regulation and energy efficiency are crucial through which both renewable energy and green technology innovation influence energy trilemma, while R&D shows an insignificant mediation effect. Based on the above findings, the study provides implications for policymakers to focus on strengthening environmental regulation, enhancing energy efficiency, and increasing the financial flow for R&D investment to incentivize the mitigating effect of green technology on renewable energy use on energy trilemma.