Non-fossil fuels now account for half of India’s installed energy capacity — years ahead of schedule — but the third-largest greenhouse gas polluter remains deeply reliant on coal for electricity generation.
“A landmark in India’s energy transition journey,” Indian Minister of Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi sid after the world’s most populous nation released figures last month.
“Five years early,” he added, referring to India’s 2030 target under the Paris Agreement, and marking a step to the country’s stated goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2070.
Photo: AFP
However, while the 50 percent milestone is significant, climate expert Avantika Goswami said the figures — which refer only to potential energy production — tell just part of the story.
“Overall, actual generation from renewable sources is still quite low,” Goswami said from the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment.
The reason is stark: Nearly three-quarters of electricity continues to come from heavily polluting coal-burning power plants.
The challenge becomes even more apparent when examining India’s continued dependence on coal. Far from decreasing its usage, the globe’s second-largest consumer of coal pushed up production of the dirty fossil fuel by five percent last year, mining 1 billion tonnes, according to the coal ministry.
“Coal remains crucial,” the Indian Ministry of Coal said.
The stance highlights the practical challenges of India’s energy transition. Coal is needed to fulfil power demands while storage capacity lags behind the surge in renewable sources of power.
“The coal sector remains a crucial contributor to India’s energy mix, powering over 74 percent of the country’s electricity and sustaining key industries like steel and cement,” the coal ministry said, celebrating what it dubbed “India’s coal boom.”
This reliance places India in a challenging position globally. The country ranks behind only China and the US for carbon emissions overall.
However, analysts point out that in a country of 1.4 billion people, per capita emissions are only one-third of the global average, according to official figures.
“Looking at India’s per capita emissions, the effort it is making, India is doing pretty well,” said activist Harjeet Singh, head of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.
India has set itself the daunting challenge of reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
At the same time, electricity needs are expected to more than double by 2047, according to the country’s Center for Science and Environment.
Supplying some of that demand “is likely to be met by the addition of renewables”, Goswami said.
Half of India’s 484.8GW installed capacity is from non-fossil fuel sources.
The majority comes from solar, totaling 119GW — the third-largest level globally.
India is building one of the world’s largest solar and wind energy farms, spread over a desert the size of Singapore.
It is followed by hydro and wind, and also nuclear power — which makes up less than 2 percent of the total mix.
However, solar and wind create steady power only when the conditions are right, and India’s storage capacity is a meagre 505MWh — far lower than it can generate.
The storage bottleneck was not lost on the renewable energy minister.
Speaking at the inauguration of a battery storage systems plant in June, Joshi said India’s renewable energy potential was “growing fast” and “adding 25-30 GW every year.”
“But without storage, we will either waste that energy or fall back on coal when renewables dip,” he added.
Building storage based on batteries requires rare earth metals, with rival and neighbor China controlling 70 percent of the world’s supplies.
“We still remain dependent on China,” said Harjeet Singh, the climate activist.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) was in New Delhi for talks on Tuesday, with the supply of rare earth metals on the agenda.
One solution India is considering is pump-hydro energy storage projects.
When wind and solar plants produce excess energy, water is pumped into high reservoirs. That stored energy can then be released to generate power when demand surges.
However, Goswami believes the transition to cleaner power requires a multi-pronged approach.
The transition to cleaner power must come from “emission intensity reduction” of often inefficient coal plants, combined with better integrated renewable energy in the grid that “will actually make the shift happen,” he said.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
RSS