Will This Decade Mark the End For Dirty Coal in India

Solar has become cheaper than coal in India. As storage cost becomes more reasonable, solar could replace coal to a large extent, to power the nation. Coupled with government support and policies in the form of ‘PLI Scheme’ and ‘Make In India’, and an ambitious target to scale up solar installations in India, solar is slowly becoming the mainstay of power supply in our country. To take advantage of this scenario, many large solar firms are ramping up their production capacities.

Leading solar company, Tata Power Solar has already announced to double its manufacturing capacity to 1.1 GW.  Adani Solar’s capacity is also poised to increase to 2 GW by the end of 2021. Waaree Solar also has plans to increase its manufacturing capacity. India’s solar manufacturers are turning to become large-scale gigawatt producers to address the growing demand of the country. On top of this, Reliance Industries has already announced diversifying into the solar business with Rs. 75,000 crore solar plant over the next three years. Smaller companies like Premier Energies and Gautam Solar have also announced expansion plans. Indian solar companies, big and small are ramping up their solar business. Several state-run utility companies are also setting up integrated clean energy plants at their production sites. NTPC’s commitment to building 32 GW of renewable energy by 2032 has also recently doubled up to 60 GW.

All these huge investments and foray into clean energy are speaking lengths about the future of coal in India. It is estimated that solar will overtake coal by the end of 2030. While solar capacity is expected to grow by 700%, coal will expand only by ~30% over the next decade. India’s fossil fuel-based power generation is also declining for the past two years.