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Not-Transitioning: India burns more coal than the US and Europe combined and just ordered $33b in “new coal plants”

Coal trains in Bihar, India November 2023. by Salil Kumar Mukherjee

By Jo Nova

India is going gangbusters building coal

The need for energy in India is so dire, the Modi government just leaned on the power companies to get their act together. Instead of adding the usual 1 – 2 gigawatts of new coal power, which they have for a lot of the last decade, last year they ordered enough gear to build 10 gigawatts. And this year Modi wants them to aim for 31 gigawatts. Which is about the same capacity as the entire coal generation of the Australian National Grid (and our gas plants too).

Somewhat miraculously, they are talking of building them “in the next 5 or 6 years”:

India ‘Asks Utilities to Order $33bn in Gear to Lift Coal Output’ Rush to add more coal plants

India is rushing to add fresh coal-fired plants as it is barely able to meet power demand with the existing fleet in non-solar hours.

Post pandemic, the country’s power demand scaled new records on the back of the fastest rate of economic growth among major economies and increased instances of heatwaves.