Coal is here to stay despite India's ambitious renewable energy goals
New Delhi: Coal is dirty — it makes up for 40 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, its mining wreaks havoc on the environment and burning it produces pollutants like mercury which are linked to acid rain and particulate matter that causes respiratory illnesses. But the war in Ukraine has caused a mini-energy crisis globally, pushing its use to record levels this year.
And India, the world's third largest energy consumer, was at the forefront of the global rise in coal usage as it fell back on the easiest available fossil fuel in the face of a surge in oil and gas prices that threatened to derail the economic recovery from the pandemic.
The trends of coal consumption and production this year indicate that the dirty fuel is here to stay despite the nation's ambitious target of meeting 50 per cent of energy requirements from renewable energy and non-fossil fuel capacity of 500 GW by 2030.
India's coal consumption has doubled since 2007 at an annual growth rate of 6 per cent and the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the largest increase in the fuel's demand globally this year was from India (7 per cent or an addition of 70 million tonnes). This on top of a 14 per cent rebound in 2021, and 1,033 million tonnes consumption in 2022.
And this demand is led by its electricity generation which is overly reliant on coal. Coal-fired electricity generation accounts for about 73 per cent of India's overall power needs and is likely to remain the most important source of electricity in the foreseeable future. Coal-fired power plants make up 50 per cent of the overall installed capacity of 404 GW connected to grids, with another 25 GW currently under construction. The IEA expects India's coal demand to rise steadily to 1,220 million tonnes in 2025, with 92 per cent of this going into electricity generation. Electricity demand too is seen growing at 7 per cent.
The government, which has been propagating self-reliance and cutting down imports, has been pushing for raising domestic coal production not just to meet the surge in demand but also to avoid summer blackouts.
Coal production in 2021 reached 800 million tonnes for the first time and is forecast to surpass 1 billion tonnes by 2025.
Nevertheless, by targeting a share of 50 per cent renewables in its power mix by 2030, the government is in the medium term seeking to alleviate the electricity sector's dependency on coal and reduce the cost of energy generation. It mandated 81 coal fired power plants to reduce power generation by a total of about 58 terawatt-hour (TWh) over the next four years, however, without shutting down any of the country's 172 power plants connected to the grid.
The coal ministry plans to boost the country's output to one billion tonnes in the next financial year and aims to see highest production and dispatch in the coming year 2023.
The ministry also desires to make some significant achievements in the area of coal gasification in the new year.
Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi unveiled the plans for the next year and said the coal output of one billion tonnes will come from different sources which consist of state-owned CIL, commercial mines and captive coal blocks.
In the mineral sector, Joshi said, the Centre is eyeing some more amendments in the mining act which can happen in the second half of the Budget session of Parliament. Besides, the ministry plans to put on sale 500 mineral blocks in financial year 2024-25.
