India’s authorities are considering a significant boost to coal-fired power plant capacity beyond the current 2035 peak coal expansion date and could continue building coal plants until at least 2047, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans.
India’s Power Ministry and the policy making agency NITI Aayog are currently debating ditching the current 2035 deadline for continued coal power capacity expansion and extend it by at least 12 years, as India seeks to boost energy security.
If the plan to expand the coal fleet by 2047 goes through, India could have as much as 420 gigiawatts (GW) of coal power capacity by that year, nearly double the current level, or a massive 87% jump from 2025, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
Coal-fired power generation and capacity installations in India continue to rise and coal remains a key pillar of India’s electricity mix with about 60% share of total power output.
India’s annual installations of new coal-fired power capacity hit 4 gigawatts in 2024, flat on the five-year high of 2023 and the highest level since 2019, according to official government figures.
India plans to add as much as 90 GW of coal capacity by 2032 as it looks to meet its surging power demand with reliable baseload electricity.
Despite booming renewable capacity additions, India continues to rely on coal to meet most of its power demand as authorities also look to avoid blackouts in cases of severe heat waves.
Coal will still be a key part of India’s power system for the next two decades, Rajnath Ram, adviser for energy NITI Aayog, said in September.
“We cannot be subjective about coal. The question is how sustainably we can use it,” the official noted.
One way is to install carbon capture and storage systems to reduce emissions from burning the most polluting fossil fuel.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
