Close watchers of the global energy landscape would have noticed two stories in The New York Times this week. One was about the falling prices of renewable energy to the point of becoming cheaper than coal.

The second was the announcement from an energy company, NRG Energy, a long-time coal-user, that it would cut 50% of its emissions by 2030 and 90% by 2050. These two events may be far removed from the developing world situation, but it may not be long before they start influencing the energy landscape in these countries, including India.

The New York Times story quoted utility executives as saying that several companies have signed power purchase agreements for solar and wind at prices below that of natural gas. Some of this is the result of subsidies, but renewable energy prices are falling so fast that they could compete soon with coal and natural gas even without subsidies. Once that stage is crossed, there is no turning back to fossil fuels.

So the shift from fossil fuels to an economy based on renewable energy is continual and will be complete sometime this century. Whether they will help to stop serious climate change is a completely different matter.

Renewable energy is growing not just because of government efforts, but also because companies and individuals have taken a serious interest in sustainable energy, driving distributed generation and along with it disruption of utility business models.

Once a breakthrough arrives in electricity storage, the old age will collapse and the new age will take over. When that would happen is anybody’s guess. All over the US, utilities are seriously considering energy storage in their long-term plans. The main driver is last year’s energy storage mandate in California, which requires utilities to create 1.3 gigawatts of storage by 2020.

While these would slowly bring storage into the equation, they will not reduce costs enough to make renewable energy a true competitor to coal soon enough. Several people have claimed breakthroughs in grid storage technology, but none is yet to hit the commercial market yet.

This brings us to the second part of the assertion: that a quick shift away from fossil fuels will be enough to tackle climate change. Carbon dioxide is a long-lived gas. A large amount of it will go back to the earth in a few centuries, but some of it would remain in the atmosphere for a long time, probably for a few millennia.

It also takes about 40 years for the gas that is already up there to show its effect on heating. This means that mere slowing down of emissions is not enough. They have to come to zero and then go into reverse. We need to pull carbon dioxide out of the air and put it deep inside the earth where they cannot go up again.

All this may seem far removed from the Indian situation, where a new government is trying to generate power and speed up economic growth. However, even if India does not want to be a participant in the battle against climate change, it will definitely be a recipient of its worst effects. Whether the government and incumbents like it or not, the improving economics of renewable energy will begin to upset utility business models in India as well.

Renewable energy will not be a significant player in India except after a decade. But it will do enough to create disruption for utilities and force regulators to think hard.