‘Replacing Coal to Generate Clean Energy Still a Big Challenge in India’

Patna: Replacing coal for generation of power to renewable energy or clean energy in India is still a big challenge for reducing emissions to mitigate climate change. This is despite experts highlighting the need for transition from the use of fossil fuels to green energy as a must.

"The coal question is not really about coal, but about what the country will do to increase the capacity and generation of clean energy. The acute energy poverty that India suffers from means the country will have to double its energy capacity and generation by 2030. This means that coal cannot be replaced – rather, it would have to be methodically displaced by clean energy sources", said Sunita Narain, director general of New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) at a ‘National Dialogue on Renewable Energy for an Equitable Green Transition’, organised by CSE at the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute, located in Nimli, near Alwar, Rajasthan, on December 9.

Narain further stated that the challenge for the country was to augment power infrastructure, to make it clean, and to supply electricity at affordable rates. The good news is that the government of India is committed to this transition, and an ambitious but feasible target has been set, she added. "We are hoping it will provide the green energy transformation that we desperately need,” she said.

As per a press release by CSE, India is working toward reducing its emissions intensity by 45% by 2030 (compared with the 2005 levels). It has also said that by 2030, as much as 50% of its energy capacity would be from renewable (non-fossil fuel) sources. The country’s target for installed renewable energy capacity has been hiked – from 175 gigawatt (GW) by 2022 to 500 GW by 2030.

According to the 2024 Economic Survey, India’s power demand is expected to surge 2-2.5 times by 2047. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) said the growing demand will need 777 GW of total installed capacity by 2030 – 44% of this demand will be met by the 500 GW of non-fossil fuel sources that the country is planning to install.

As per CEA, 426 GW of new renewables will need to be installed – solar power would be the driver of this clean energy future. It will supply 23% of the total power generated in India by 2030.

That displacement has already started happening. CSE researchers point out that though coal is still the “king” – with 217.5 GW installed capacity out of a total of 440 GW -- it is losing its place. Energy generated from fossil fuels (coal, lignite and gas) is expected to dip from 77% of the total in 2024 to 56% by 2030.

“The more dramatic change would be in the contribution of new renewables – from 13 per cent today, they would be expected to generate 32 per cent by 2030,” Narain was quoted as saying.

Another CSE expert, Nivit Kumar Yadav, said that the installed capacity of clean energy had increased – India ranks fourth in the world today for renewable energy capacity addition. From 32% of the total, installed capacity of non-fossil fuel-based power has climbed up to 45%, he said.

However, CSE researchers point out that there was need to also scale up generation. India does not have a stated target for percentage of generation of non-fossil fuel-based energy in the total energy mix. New RE (renewable energy) accounts for only 13% of the total generation (2023-24), they point out.

One concern that the CSE investigation has unearthed is that while on one hand many projects are yet to be commissioned, there appear to be very few takers for renewable source-based power. The website of the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) says 34.5 GW of projects remain uncommissioned, despite their PPAs (power purchase agreements) having been already signed.

Pradip Kumar Das, chairperson and managing director of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), said in the CSE release: “By 2030, India would need investments of around Rs 30-32 lakh crore in renewable energy. To scale up renewable energy, capital investment must be fast tracked; at the same time, risks emerging from land conversion and transmission delays need to be reduced.”

Manu Srivastava of the Madhya Pradesh energy department stressed the need to improve RE penetration in India, adding that the sector needs to be economically viable. “India needs to tailor its power demand based on solar generation, instead of trying to make solar mimic thermal power”, he said.

Harish Hande of SELCO India advocated that “linking energy with health and livelihoods will help integrate RE better, rather than a single pursuit of energy generation alone”.

Narain, while noting that “India has good governance systems that are still evolving”, said what needs to be focused on are “efforts to bring down the capital costs of large plants, try and de-risk the plants, and try and ensure there are effective agencies in place to do the bidding and tendering, agencies that can act as intermediaries that can ease the processes of buying and selling.”

“RE transition is about the politics of inclusion. Only if growth -- the cost of energy -- is affordable, can it be sustainable,” Narain added.

The writer is a freelancer based in Patna, Bihar.