46 Gigawatts of Proposed Coal-Fired Power Projects Cancelled in 12 Months, With 600 Gigawatts Cancelled Last Decade
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Key Findings
Despite slower than expected growth in renewable energy installs, India’s electricity market has continued to transition over the last three years with coal power becoming largely unbankable.
Between April 2017 and January 2020, India installed 29 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity with investment of roughly US$30bn in the sector (including grid expansion to support new capacity).
Executive Summary
The Government of India’s objective of 450GW by 2030 has been aided by significantly low solar and wind tariffs discovered through competitive reverse bidding auctions.
During this same period, 19.9GW of coal-fired capacity was added while 5.6GW of end-of-life coal-fired plants were retired. That leaves just 13.8GW of net coal-fired capacity adds over almost three years—a dramatically lower expansion compared to almost 100GW of capacity additions between financial years (FY) 2011/12 and 2015/16.
The slowing growth in India’s coal-fired capacity is reflective of India’s strong energy transition and the country’s growing low cost renewable energy capacity.
