India’s Changing Goal Posts Over Coal

By Educrat IAS Academy | | 0 comment | 6 June, 2022 | 0

Recently, Finance Minister said India’s transition away from coal as a fuel for power would be hampered by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock rich in carbon and hydrocarbons that takes millions of years to develop, making it a non-renewable energy source.
Coal is also known as black gold
It contains energy stored by plants that flourished hundreds of millions of years ago in swampy forests.

The threat of global warming looms over the planet, promising to bring about unprecedented natural calamities.
An effective way to keep the danger at bay is to cut the use of fossil fuels — coal, natural gas and oil. About 80% of the world’s energy requirements are met by these three fuels.
They have likely brought on the climate crisis we now face, as they trigger the emission of carbon dioxide.
Worst culprit: Coal
It emits nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas and about 60% more than oil, on a kilogram-to-kilogram comparison.
Combusting coal also leaves behind partially-burnt carbon particles that feed pollution and trigger respiratory disorders.
The consequence of these chemical reactions gains great significance because, the power sector in India accounts for 49% of total carbon dioxide emissions, compared with the global average of 41%.

As of February 2022, the installed capacity for coal-based power generation across the country was 2.04 lakh megawatt (MW). This accounts for about 51.5% of power from all sources.
This compares with about 25,000 MW of capacity based on natural gas as fuel, or a mere 6.3% of all installed capacity.
Renewable power accounted for 1.06 lakh MW or 27%.
Coal-based power stations are retired periodically which happens all the time.
But is not fast enough nor are new additions being halted. And with good reason – coal is still inexpensive compared with other sources of energy.

Natural gas has been dubbed as the transition fuel in India’s plans to move away from coal.
The international cost of natural gas has zoomed in the recent past due to war, from a level that was considered already too high to be financially viable.
On May 17, 2022, the price per MMBTU of gas was ₹1,425, compared with ₹500 in April, 2021.
Even back in November last, well before the war made things difficult, the government put in place a committee to ensure that natural gas prices remained stable.
Of the 25,000 MW of gas-based power plants, about 14,000 MW remains stranded, or idle, because they are financially unviable.

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