Renewable energy has slowly come to the forefront of energy production techniques in the world with many countries investing more and more into the renewable sector. Developing country like India with 1.324 billion population as on 2016 has been investing huge amount of money on the renewable sources for meeting their demand. The aim of this paper is to understand how educational institutions are utilizing renewable energy sources and managing energy in meeting their loads. VIT University, Vellore Campus, Tamil Nadu is taken for case study in studying the technical and economic aspects involved in the effective usage of renewable sources. Various challenges involved with respect to educational institutions and energy saving mechanisms are also discussed in this paper. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.