This sounds like good news, but it isn't. The plan is to increase coal production within India, and fix the rail transport bottlenecks that have not allowed coal-fired plants to get enough coal delivered. Meanwhile India's vast solar potential is being ignored. At least it is bad news for coal mining in Australia, for which India has been one of its top customers.
There is no reason to assume that any part of this plan will actually be achieved. For example, last year coal imports to India increased substantially. (Story below) As I explained in Renewable Friday: India Since COP21
l;dr India will be one of the biggest markets for renewables in the world, but insists on doing it by fighting the forces of economics, instead of working with them. The Licence Raj Lives!
There are perverse incentives pushing companies to do the wrong thing throughout the Indian economy.
Economic Times
New Delhi: India will stop importing thermal coal from financial year 2023-24, coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi said on [Feb. 18].
Joshi said various ways and means were discussed with key stakeholders to achieve One billion tonne coal production target by Coal India by 2023-24. The ministry will coordinate with Indian Railways and the shipping ministry and enable Coal India, captive and commercial miners evacuate more coal by 2030, he said.
It's long past time to cut off coal imports, but more importantly it is long past time for India to cut off coal altogether.
Continuing from the Economic Times:
“It was also proposed that Coal India could generate 5 GW of solar power by 2023-24 and could diversify into coal gasification with a target of 50 Million Tonnes by 2030 enabling a sustainable energy mix for the country. All these ideas will be deliberated, studied and examined for their feasibility in detail and based on that, they shall be implemented,” an official statement said.
Coal gasification is gaslighting. You end up with less energy than you would get by burning the coal directly, and you generate just as much CO2.
May 06, 2013 3:03pm PDT by Mokurai, Community ... Leucadia Energy's Rockport Coal Gasification Boondoggle—environmental threat, financial threat, and …
5 GW of solar is piddling. If they said 50 GW, I would reply that it's a start. If they said 100 GW I would be impressed. For the moment.
As of October 2019, of the 175 GW interim target, 83 GW is already operational, 29 is under installation, 30 GW is under bidding, and remaining 43 GW is under planning.[6] 175 GW interim target is 100 GW of solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of bio mass and 5 GW of small hydro. As of 2019, 35% total power production comes from renewable energy, 13% or 45.399 GW of the total from all sources comes from large hydro projects,[1] 10% or 36.686 GW of the total from all sources from wind power which is fourth-largest in the world,[7] 8% or 9.1 GW of total power from all sources from Biomass power from biomass combustion, biomass gasification and bagasse cogeneration.[1]
In spite of India's huge solar potential, it is still only a minor contributor. There is supposed to be a plan for 100 GW of solar in the next few years, but it is unclear what its status is.
Much of the country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power was for water pumping, to begin replacing India's four to five million diesel powered water pumps, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting. Some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km2 (14,000 sq mi) area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 gigawatts. Solar power in India has been growing at a rate of 113% yoy[48] and now dropped to around ₹4.34 (6.1¢ US) per kWh, which is around 18% lower than the average price for electricity generated by coal-fired plants.[49][50]
It is estimated that the grid reaches about 80% of Indians.
Solar power: In a slump India’s booming
India’s booming solar power sector has witnessed a slowdown as distribution companies delay payments to power plants.
India targets 100 GW of solar power by 2022. It has already installed 31 GW, 17 GW capacity is under construction and tenders for 35 GW have been floated.
The story lays out vast dysfunction in Indian government regulation of business in general and solar in particular, particularly in demanding unreasonably low bids from solar energy providers. There are many other such problems, like Indian rail companies overcharging for transporting coal, in order to subsidize passenger service. And when coal goes away?
India has renewable energy projects of 46,500 Mw capacity in the pipeline
Experts say the success of the ambitious plan would depend upon multiple factors. The depreciating rupee and imposition of safeguard duty can increase tariffs and evacuation infrastructure remains a challenge, according to Ankur Agarwal, Senior Analyst at India Ratings & Research.
"Best windy sites are mostly concentrated in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and availability of most windy sites will remain a challenge. Also, they compete with solar for evacuation infrastructure as many windy sites also have good solar resource. The financial health of turbine manufacturers also poses a threat as they are also the operators in most of the cases," added Agarwal.
The government expects to overachieve the 175 GW renewable energy target on the back of new schemes for floating solar power, awarding manufacturing-linked solar projects and offshore wind energy projects.
Coal in India
Thermal coal imports for 2019 rise 12.6%
Lower production by Coal India spurs trend; coking coal registers decline.
India’s thermal coal imports rose 12.6% to nearly 200 million tonnes in 2019, government data reviewed by Reuters showed, reflecting the second straight year of growth in shipments of the fuel despite attempts by the government to cut imports.
Stop using India’s coal power plants as an excuse for climate inaction—Quartz
If you’ve spent any time debating the challenge of climate change, you’ve likely come across a common excuse for inaction. It goes something like: “[Insert rich country name] might be able to cut emissions, but that won’t solve climate change, because India is still building dozens of coal power plants.”
Let’s put this excuse to bed, once and for all.
when measuring the climate change performance of the world’s top 60 emitters in terms of emissions, renewables deployment, energy use, and climate policies, and other indicators India is ranked 11, in the esteemed company of other green countries like Norway, Denmark, and the UK.
Additionally, the fact that India and other poor countries are building coal power plants does not mean coal has a longterm future. A recent analysis found that the coal power plants under construction across the world would add about 236 GW of power capacity in the next few years. But the retirement of coal power plants in the US, Europe, and India would mean losing 234 GW of power capacity.
Coal going from winner to loser in India's energy future: Russell
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s demand for electricity is expected to double in the next two decades, and coal has been long forecast to be the fuel of choice for power generation. But this may no longer be the case.
The main reason coal may battle to fuel India’s future energy needs is that it’s simply becoming too expensive relative to renewable energy alternatives such as wind and solar.
Rajit Desai, the head of engineering, procurement and construction at major private generator Tata Power, told a forum at this week’s Coaltrans India conference that his company wasn’t looking at developing any new coal plants.
Tata Power is instead focusing on buying coal-fired power plants that are effectively distressed assets.
Many of these plants started construction in the past seven years, when power demand and price forecasts for electricity were bullish.
Some of the plants under construction or newly completed, though, have been unable to secure power purchase agreements with high enough prices for them to operate profitably.
This means a company such as Tata Power can buy these brownfield plants at a discount steep enough to make them viable at the electricity prices currently being offered.