Clean Energy: India cannot wish coal

India has always occupied a firm position of coal, claiming to be crucial to its energy security and development needs.

But energy experts and environmental campaigns are increasingly saying that at least they should try to decarbonize or limit coal -plated emissions if this cannot be discontinued.

“You can’t wish coal,” Ashok Lavasa, a former secretary of the Union and the Environment Ministries, forests and climate change, told an event on July 1.

“The point is that if the coal is a king, then can it be a benevolent king?”

This signals the fact that realistically speaking, coal – albeit a cleaner coal – can remain the main source of energy of energy in India, despite the years of international climate negotiations, demanding highly polluting fossil fuel.

But why is India – the third largest carbon emitter in the world – decided to stick to coal in the first place? In the end, the country has international obligations to significantly reduce its carbon emissions, along with its own goal to reduce levels to Net Zero by 2070.

Part of the answer lies in the growing requirements of the country of the country.

Electricity demand in India has increased by more than 9% between 2021 and 2025, exceeding a previous 6.6% forecast – and is now predicted to double by 2030.

Coal power plants have generated more than 70% of the total electricity supply every year since the early 2000s – a figure, which remains unchanged.

But the environmental costs of this consideration of coal are huge.

Forecasts suggest that the very production of electricity in India represents more than 40% of annual carbon emissions-nearly three-quarters of this electricity comes from the burning of coal.

The country has made progress in achieving its renewable energy goals – it contributes 46% of the total installed capacity of India – but renewable sources have restrictions. They generate electricity when the sun rises and the wind spirit.

Even during the day, experts say, renewable energy supply can hesitate, while heat plants remain a constant source of electricity and are able to take care of peak search in the evening and at night.

Moreover, the energy storage capacity in India – or the ability to store excess electricity from renewable energy sources during the day – failed to keep up with the expansion of resources.

“This means that there is no other option (other than the heat for permanent supply) unless and while we have large -scale storage in the system,” says Rajiv Prescal, director of Grid India, the Network of the India network under the Ministry of Power, speaking at the 1july event, organized by the Center for Science and the Environment.

Experts say that constant supply from heat power plants is crucial to the stability of the network or network of towers and transmission lines that carry electricity from power plants to consumers.

“Any great discrepancy of demand and supply will destabilize the network and this can mean a power and eclipse interruption, similar to what we have recently seen in Spain,” says Anjan Kumar Sinha, an independent expert on the energy sector.

With all these factors in the game, India strives to reduce emissions from power plants accumulated with coal instead of fasting completely on coal.

A recent CSE report is said that only decarbonisation from coal -based heat plants can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

This is especially important given the country’s commitment to reduce the intensity of emissions (carbon emissions produced per unit of the country’s economic production) by 45% by 2030 under the UN Convention on Climate Change.

But there are challenges.

The general problem that thermal plants face is that they must continue to operate at least 55% capacity even during the day, although they have alternative renewable sources such as wind and solar energy to rely on.

This is because operators cannot increase the capacity to the end in the short term, especially during the peak hours of the evening, when supplies from renewable sources are reduced.

Experts say there is an urgent need to make thermal power plants more efficient so that they can operate with a smaller capacity.

“How low we can pass (to reduce the minimum threshold at a level of implementation) is the question,” says Ramesh Veerawalli, a member of the Central Electricity Regulation Commission in India, talking to the event. “Technically possible.”

Another way to improve plants efficiency is to adapt technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions so as not to escape from the atmosphere

But some say this has given limited results, with an assessment of the World Resources Institute saying that the technology currently reflects only about 0.1% of world emissions.

A third suggestion is to burn agricultural debris at the site of coal in thermal power plants.

“This idea has led to a significant reduction in the use of coal in the heat plants in Delhi and the surrounding cities,” says Part Kumar, the leader of the CSE program, which proposed methods to reduce emissions in its latest report.

“But other parts of the country are yet to take this seriously, although regulation requires them,” he added.

Experts say that reducing emissions from coal-accumulated power plants will need major system changes, including huge costs.

But how much it will come to this price – and who would honor it – are difficult questions without immediate answers.

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