In the past month, as India broiled under a historic heat wave and consumed a record amount of electricity for cooling, the Coal Ministry announced it would reopen old mines and increase output by 100 million tons.
A stack of coal at a wholesale market in Mumbai on May 5. Production of coal, the fossil fuel that accounts for more than 70 percent of India’s electricity generation, has not kept pace with unprecedented energy demand from the heat wave and the country’s post-pandemic industrial revival. NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long touted his vision of turning India into a leader in renewable energy. Recent weeks have revealed a more complicated reality.
Had India stuck to its pledge on renewables, it would not have faced a power shortage this spring, according tofrom the Climate Risk Horizons consultancy in New Delhi.
India’s coal production is widely expected to expand in the coming years as the government looks to meet surging power demand and secure energy independence. The country is the world’s second-largest coal producer behind China,to the International Energy Agency, and will contribute the largest increase in global coal output in absolute tonnage between 2021 and 2024. About 80 percent of its coal output comes from Coal India, the state-owned giant.
The country of nearly 1.4 billion is expected to see its demand for electricity more than double by 2030, according to the IEA. By 2050, the agency estimates that India will consume 15 times more energy for cooling than in 2018, largely because the number of air conditioners in use will skyrocket. Even though India is building out renewable energy sources, it still derives 70 percent of its power from coal, an abundant natural resource.
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