Energising India

Coal would remain at the centre stage in India with its share in energy mix not declining below 46% in 2047, claimed a report titled ‘Energising India’, jointly prepared by the NITI Aayog and the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. The study found that coal and nuclear would continue to operate as base load units for power generation. The report said that the share of electricity generation through coal based power plants will almost be around 55% in 2032. In FY17, coal power plants generated more than 85% of the total electricity produced in the country. The share of gas based electricity can go up to 22%-26% (from present ~4%) in the low gas price and long term market driven scenario respectively due to lower prices. In order to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement, 50% of coal-based power generation capacity will have to be supercritical technology based by 2047, the report added. Share of clean coal technology was 11.35% in 2015.