Why India Can't Live Without Dirty Coal

Despite the bad optics, India needs to keep burning coal and open up more mines

- Sumant Banerji

About 100km from Pokharan in Rajasthan—the famous site for nuclear tests—a small village called Bhadla has registered a prominent place on the world map. Nearly a decade ago, the barren topography of the place, where temperatures shoot up to 50 degrees Celsius in summer, began to change as streams of blue films shimmering in the bright sunlight began to dot the landscape. These are solar panels that stretch for 7.5km.

Spanning over 14,000 acres and built with an investment of more than ₹10,000 crore, there are 10 million of these blue solar panels in what is now called the Bhadla Solar Park. The panels can generate 2.25 gigawatt (GW) of electricity, sufficient to light up over one million homes. Bhadla is the largest solar park in the world and gives a sneak peak into the future of electricity generation—clean and green.

Nearly 1,500km away, in Bundelkhand, one of the most backward regions of India, is Singrauli. This sleepy little town is situated near the tri junction of three major states—Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Singrauli has the state-run NTPC’s Vindhyachal Thermal Power Station. Set up in 1987, it went through many rounds of expansion. Its last expansion came in 2015, the same year when Bhadla Solar Park was being set up. Today, Vindhyachal Thermal is the largest power station in the country producing 4.76GW of power, more than double of Bhadla.

The mesh of concrete and steel juxtaposed by many chimneys that bellow black smoke high up the skies underline its scale but it’s a bit of an eyesore. Also, producing electricity by burning coal is shunned upon by many with the war on climate change being fought on multiple fronts.