The role of coal and RES Figure 3 presents the yearly growth of coal and RES in the last decade. In 2009, the installed capacity of coal was 84 GW and increased at a rate of 143% to 205 GW in 2019. As discussed earlier, RES increased at a growth rate of 459% from 15.52 GW to 86.76 GW. However, in the last five years the growth of coal installation has significantly reduced, as seen in Figure 3. Between 2015 and 2019 the growth rate of coal’s installed capacity was 11%, whereas RES increased at a higher rate of 89% in the same time period. Figure 1. All of India’s installed capacity from 1947 - 2002.
The status of renewable energy sources The progression in the installed capacity of RES is presented in Figure 4. The growth in capacity addition of small hydropower and biopower is much less in the discussed time period, whilst the majority of growth is in wind power and solar power. In 2013 the installed capacity of wind power was 21.04 GW, and increased to 37.67 GW in 2019. Solar power in the same time period increased approximately 15 times – from 2.63 GW to 34.41 GW. This can be attributed to the various policies by the government of India promoting the installation of these two abundantly available RES. Figure 2. India’s installed capacity between 2009 - 2010 and 2019 ‑ 2020.
Figure 3. Growth of coal and RES installed capacity.
capacity are the increasing electricity demand and also the necessity to electrify unelectrified parts of India to provide power for all citizens in the country. The major sources of India’s installed electricity capacity are fossil fuels such as coal, gas, diesel, and non-fossil fuels such as nuclear, hydropower (>25 MW), and renewable energy sources (RES). RES include small hydro projects (<25 MW), biomass gasifiers, biomass power, urban and industrial waste power, solar energy, and wind energy. Figure 2 demonstrates that in the time period shown both coal and RES have seen a large jump in terms of installed capacity when compared to the other sources. In 2009, the percentage contribution of coal to India’s installed capacity was 53% (the installed capacity of coal also includes lignite), followed by hydropower (23%), gas (11%), and RES (10%). The installed capacity of RES in 2009 was 15.52 GW and increased by more than five times to 86.76 GW in 2019. In unison with the government of India’s schemes to promote RES, there has been a rapid increase in the installation of RES in the last 10 years.
10 ENERGY GLOBAL SUMMER 2020
The continued use of coal Despite this large increase in installed capacity of RES, coal is the major source of power generation in the country. The percentage contribution of coal in installed capacity in 2019 increased to 55% followed by RES (23%), hydropower (12%), and gas (7%). The main reason for this is the addition of highly intermittent solar and wind power into the installed capacity of the electricity system. The generation from solar and wind power are variable across hours, days, and seasons. In a country such as India, the generation of solar power is only possible from 7.00 am to 6.00 pm. During Summer, the generation from solar power is expected to be very high, but in monsoon season the generation will be low. The same is also applicable to wind power. In monsoon season the generation from wind power will be high and in other seasons it may be at a lower level. The efficient operation of the electricity grid requires a firm power generating source, but the power generation from RES is not firm and fluctuates in nature. In contrast, all of the conventional sources (coal, gas, oil, and nuclear) provide firm power for the seamless operation of the electricity grid in matching the supply and demand. Once switched on, the conventional power generation sources (firm power) will generate electricity continuously, subject to the availability of fuel.
The cost of going green Going green requires an equal amount of conventional power plants (in this case, coal) to be added to the electricity system. There is a huge cost involved in this with respect to installation, operation, and maintenance. The focus on becoming more RES friendly means that the country has become more dependent on coal power plants. For example, without RES, the cost of 1 MW of coal consists of its installation, operation and maintenance. In comparison, the cost of 1 MW of RES is the installation, operation, and maintenance cost of 1 MW of RES, as well as the installation, operation, and maintenance costs of 1 MW of coal.
