Although they talk about increasing renewable output, the real news is the proposed doubling of coal output ( to 1 billion tonnes a year in the next five years) to fuel their “big, new coal-fired plants”.
To put the renewable figures into context, India’s current output of electricity is 975 TWh (based on 2011 data from the IEA, the latest available).
Solar capacity of 20 GW could realistically produce about 40 TWh pa, given 25% utilisation of capacity, which they are currently running at in India. In other words, this would contribute about 4% of total output, (and less in future, given an increasing total).
No figures are given for wind, but currently they produce 26 TWh pa, about 2.6% of the total. Even a doubling of wind capacity, therefore, would make very little impact.
Coal currently supplies 71% of total electricity, with hydro the next biggest contributor, with 12%. Other fossil fuels add another 10%.
The reality is simple – for India to produce the power it needs, when it needs it, it will remain heavily and increasingly dependent on coal.
Do the math Eric. Based on current plans, in five years coal will produce 1384 TWh compared to solar at 40 TWh (approx 3% of coal).
powerengineeringint.com |
