Growth, Sustainability And Energy Security– Coal Gasification Shows The Way

Coal has been the primary source of energy for homes, industries as well as transportation for over two centuries. Coal powered steam engines powered the industrial revolution as well as sea and land transport in Europe, in the eighteenth century. Even prior to this, it was extensively used for production of Iron which was needed for manufacture of implements, tools as well as machinery.

Even till the latter part of the 20th century, coal was the major source of energy across the continents and accounted for over 65 per cent of electricity generation world-wide.

With the increasing concerns around global warming and climate change, coal has been identified as a major contributor to the environmental crisis. Of the 38 Gigatons (Gt) of CO2 released into the Earth’s atmosphere annually, the lions share comes from the use of fossil fuels, with energy-related greenhouse gas emissions accounting for the majority of all emissions caused by human activity. According to the International Energy Agency, the power sector accounted for nearly two-thirds of global emissions growth, with coal use for power generation alone producing over 10 Gt of CO2.

India, with its huge reserves of coal, has relied on coal as the primary source of energy, with over 70 per cent of its electricity generation coming from coal. In the last decade, coal has gradually become a pariah in the international community with many developed countries announcing shutting down of coal power plants. Even funding as well as technology support for thermal power has gradually been shut off and it is becoming difficult even to get insurance covers due to non-availability of reinsurers.
In this scenario, India is, today, grappling with the conflict of balancing the aspirations of 1.41 billion people—more than one sixth of humanity, with the imperatives of sustainable growth. While the developed nations have achieved their economic growth on the use of traditional energy sources and in the process consumed 80 per cent of the planet’s carbon budget, today that option is no longer open to any country in the world. For a country the size of India, ensuring a well-planned and just transition away from coal is a challenging task.

India has seen a sharp stop to thermal ordering in the past years from 12,500 MW in FY2015-16 to Nil in FY2021-22, and no ordering for almost three years. The fallout of the Ukraine war on the international energy supply scenario and rising oil/ gas prices, has sharply brought into focus the dangers of over dependence on external sources of energy. A number of European nations have in fact, either restarted their coal based thermal power plants or are increasing the outputs from existing coal based facilities.

It is today, an accepted fact that it is not just coal but all fossil fuels which will need to be phased out. However, resource availability will be a key factor deciding any country’s energy mix. India is the fifth largest producer of coal with an annual production of ~770 Million Tonnes (MT) in 2021-22 and estimated coal reserves of 350 Billion Tonnes (BT) (including 163 BT of proven reserves—mostly high ash coal). Given India’s huge coal reserves and scarce oil and gas reserves, coal has now been recognised as an imperative for the country – at least in the short to medium term— from an energy security and economic stability perspective.


As such, we are seeing a resurgence in the tendering for new thermal power plants and it is estimated that somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 MW of coal power plants will be ordered in the next 4-5 years. While there is a revival of coal-fired power plants in the short run, it cannot however be a long term solution, given that thermal power contributes to more than 40 per cent of all the carbon emissions in the country (with transport, steel and cement being the other major polluters contributing around 35 per cent). As such, the use of coal, will need to focus on clean coal technologies like coal gasification, carbon capture, etc.