India increases coal use due to unusually dry weather

• 7 months ago (2023-09-04)
• David Flin

Asia 850 Coal 275

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India has increased its use of coal to generate electricity in an attempt to stop outages caused by lower hydropower output and as its renewable capacity is struggling to meet record demand.

The driest August in more than a century has resulted in power demand rising to a record 162.7 TWh according to the federal grid operator Grid India . Coal’s share in power output in August rose to 66.7 per cent. Lower rainfall led to the share of hydropower falling to 14.8 per cent, compared with 18.1 per cent in the same period last year.

The Indian Government has repeatedly defended its extensive use of coal, citing rising renewable energy output. India is the world’s third largest emitter of CO2 through power generation, emitting more than the EU (including UK).

Coal’s share in output in India rose to 74.2 per cent in the eight months that ended in August, according to Grid India, compared with 72.9 per cent in the same period last year, and on track for a third consecutive annual increase.

India has announced that it will boost non-fossil capacity to 500 GW by 2030. Achieving that target would require over 43 GW of new non-fossil capacity every year, three times that previously achieved.