King Coal’s reign in India is about to come crashing down . Coal supplied 80% of India’s total power mix in 2016-2017, but economics have flipped the country’s energy equation – new renewable energy is now cheaper to build than running most existing coal-fired power plants.
Renewable energy costs have fallen 50% in two years, and are forecast to continue dropping apace. New wind and solar is now 20% cheaper than existing coal-fired generation’s average wholesale power price, and 65% of India’s coal power generation is being sold at higher rates than new renewable energy bids in competitive power auctions.
The tipping point may have been 2016-2017, when renewable energy installations surpassed coal for the first time, adding twice the capacity. Coal plants nationwide already only run around half of the time, nearly every Indian coal plant violates the country’s new air pollution standard, and India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has proposed closing nearly 50 GW of coal capacity by 2027....
Stranded assets are already a problem for Indian’s coal fleet - the India-run Numerical service estimates 17 coal-fired plants totaling 18.4 GW capacity worth roughly $30 billionare currently stranded assets – and the problem isn’t going to improve anytime soon.Stranded assets are already a problem for Indian’s coal fleet - the India-run Numerical service estimates 17 coal-fired plants totaling 18.4 GW capacity worth roughly $30 billionare currently stranded assets – and the problem isn’t going to improve anytime soon.....
