The Coal Workers In India Face a Future As Dark As The Coal

Future of Coal Looks Dark In India

India has been making rapid strides in the solar industry with new goals achieved every few months. Since the country’s announcement of 100 GW by 2022, there have been tremendous changes in the whole power landscape of India. India has now become power surplus and does not need coal power any time in the new future. While King Coal still accounts for 60% of the country’s power generation capacity, solar energy is making rapid strides. Analysts are predicting a 10 GW annual solar market from 2017 onward.

Rewa ultra mega solar power project achieves Record Low Bid

The solar tariffs have fallen to record lows and the state is already been achieved in India. The Madhya Pradesh 750 MW Rewa ultra mega solar power project is not only the largest solar parks in the world, but has also registered the lowest tariffs of INR 2.97 (4.4 cents)/ kWh. This means solar power is now cheaper in India beating coal fired plants which still need INR 4-5 /kWh for construction.

ReNew Power, SBG Cleantech and the Adani and Aditya Birla groups were among the twenty other bidders who had put in bids for the Rewa project. The bids were called by Rewa Ultra Mega Power Ltd, a joint venture of Solar Energy Corp. of India Ltd (SECI) and MPUVNL.

Fortum India was the lowest bidder for the Badla solar park in Rajasthan in January 2016, quoting INR 4.34/ kWh. One year later the highest bid for Rewa solar project comes in at INR 4.39/ kWh. This is the level of competition in India that we are talking about! India’s largest power generation utility, NTPC Ltd. supplies electricity from coal power projects at INR 3.20 a unit.

Solar energy has come a long way not only for its green credentials, but also for its efficiencies and cost competitiveness with other traditional sources of power like coal. According to the BP Energy Outlook, India’s demand for renewable energy is expected to grow seven times by 2035. With solar plus storage solutions, the Indian power landscape will undergo a ground breaking technological changes in the new future.

Though not good news for the coal industry, whose workers might face a bleak future, it looks like India’s problems of greenhouse gas emission could now be resolved to a great extent.