India’s power minister R K Singh has said the country is planning to replace retiring coal-fired power plants with renewable generating capacity in a bid to cut the nation’s carbon footprint.
India is the world’s second largest coal consumer after China, and the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Reuters newsagency reports coal-fired plants currently account for more than half its nearly 373 gigawatt (GW) power generating capacity.
“Many of those plants are getting retired,” Mr Singh said at an industry event.
“Some plants are already retired, and about 29 more plants are going to retire, and all that space will be occupied by renewable energy.”
India, which aims to meet 40 per cent of its energy requirement from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, is targeting 175GW of renewable-based installed power capacity by 2022.
It currently relies on cheaper imports, mainly from China, to meet the bulk of its demand for solar cells and modules.
India’s current annual installed and functional manufacturing capacity of solar modules is around 10GW while that of solar cells is only around 2.5GW, the minister said.
“We plan to raise this capacity to around 25GW per annum for solar cells and modules in another two years’ time,” he said.
Reuters reports to protect local industry from cheaper imports, India has extended Safeguard Duty on imports of solar cells and modules by another year, and is planning an import tax on solar cells and modules.
The minister said it also wants to increase the level of import duty on solar inverters, which are connected to solar panels to convert the direct-current power into usable electricity.
India, which is hoping to become self-reliant to boost its sagging economy, also wants to build coastal renewable energy equipment manufacturing hubs with the participation of private companies.
Mr Singh said India’s power demand last month was higher than a year earlier, indicating that industry activity is rising.
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2 Responses
If this is the case then why is Adani pushing to mine coal in Australia? and doing the same in India?
Mr Adani’s only interested in himself – and our Queensland and Federal governments are only interested in what they can make out of him, in royalties and the illusion of income tax. My bet is the latter wont happen, as these vertically integrated conglomerates like Adani, – which own the Coal mine , railway, port and power station in India, – are able to manipulate cost transfers between the entities, so none of them ever shows a profit. I’ve banged on about this for years to Government, but no one is interested.
All that we end up with is a permanently degraded environment, and pollution (in the case of this mine) of the great artesian basin, through saline discharges into the lagoons that feed the underground aquifer.
All in the name of a handful of jobs in central Queensland.
If – and it’s a big if, – there is a need for increased levels of coal exports to India, they could be satisfied through restarting the existing mines in the Bowen and Mackay basin, that were mothballed when prices dropped a few years back. But of course Adani wouldn’t make any money out of that as he doesn’t own them.
The Queensland government has proven, yet again, that it doesn’t give a stuff about the environment. If it did it wouldn’t be top of the table as the state with the greatest level of land clearing, which was detailed in Eco news a week or so ago.