Despite India's renewables push, it's fossil, fossil burning bright

Despite a four-time jump in the country's renewable-energy capacity since 2014, the mainstay of power supply in India continues to be coal-based thermal power.

-  SHREYA JAI

The installed capacity of green-energy sources, chiefly solar and wind, grew to 136 gigawatt (Gw) in March 2024 against 35 Gw in March 2014.

But its contribution to electricity supply has increased to only 12 per cent to date, the data analysed by Business Standard showed.

Its technical limitations restrict the share of renewable energy in the electricity grid.

With a record hot summer and with unprecedented weather events feared this year, India's grid operators are falling back on coal.

The plant load factor (PLF) for renewable energy is in the range 16-18 per cent and thermal is 70 per cent.

With this, the share of renewable energy (excluding hydro) in the energy-generation mix remained at about 14 per cent in FY24, despite the share of renewable energy in the installed capacity at about 32 per cent as in March 2024, said Girishkumar Kadam, senior vice-president and group head (corporate ratings), ICRA.

With hydro missing, gas unavailable, and renewable energy sources sans storage largely unpredictable, close to 80 per cent of daily demand is being met through coal-run power plants. Senior executives at GRID India, India's grid oper ator, say renewable energy is meeting 25-30 per cent average electricity demand during sola hours (ie daytime) and nil dur ing night. This translates into coal running 24 hours.