India sees coal-fired electricity generation as important for energy sovereignty. Credit: Fotohunter/Shutterstock.com.

India’s coal-fired electricity generation rose to record levels in January 2024, as coal’s share of the country’s electricity generation rose to a record 80%.

According to data from the think tank Ember, coal-fired electricity generation rose to 114.91 terawatt hours (TWh), jumping from 103.54TWh in December and up 9.98% from January 2023.

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India is currently the world’s second-largest consumer of coal for electricity generation after China. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), while coal consumption fell in Europe and the US in 2023, it increased in India and China by 8% and 5% respectively.

Last year, India increased coal’s share in the electricity mix as dry weather led to a decline in electrical output for hydropower. In January, hydro’s share of the power mix fell to 4.75% from 5.09% in December and 8.13% in January the previous year. Renewables’ shares of the electricity mix tend to peak around August when conditions for solar, wind and hydro pick up.

In December, the nation’s power minister Raj Kumar Singh announced plans to expand its thermal power fleet by adding 88GW of new capacity by early 2032, with coal likely to make up a large part, owing to the high cost of gas-fired electricity generation.

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“India has no other alternative than to expand coal-based power for now. You need storage to supply round-the-clock clean energy and we neither have the scale nor the desired costs for storage technology to meet our needs,” R Srikanth, professor of energy and climate at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore, told Bloomberg in December.

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Speaking to Power Technology, Christopher de Vere Walker, head of power and utilities at non-profit Carbon Tracker, said that “India will put its sovereign interests above climate concerns if the two are pitted against each other” and decisions regarding coal’s role in the electricity generation mix are “all about stability of power”.