Last year, solar power had overtaken coal power as the cheapest source of energy in India.
While solar power producers supplying power at Rs 2.44 to 2.92 per unit of electricity, power produced from coal is selling for more than Rs 3.00 per unit, excluding the health and environmental costs.
NTPC, India’s largest power producer which accounts for about 25% of India’s total electricity production capacity, is among the few companies in India still investing in creating new coal-powered projects.
India has total coal-power capacity of around 200 gigawatt, out of which NTPC accounts for about 55 GW. In comparison, India has around 23 GW of solar power capacity.
NTPC is working on creating another 20.2 GW of coal-powered plants and around 0.8 GW of hydropower plants.
Out of the 20.2 GW of coal-powered capacity, 5.68 GW is expected to come online in the current financial year ending March 2019, while the remaining will come online later.
Unlike coal plants, whose output is as high as 90% of their total capacity, solar plants generate only around 18% of their capacity on average.
So in order to keep the grid stable and address the peak load demand, coal based power plants will have to be kept fired up, till the time renewable energy finds a way of cost effective storage especially for developing world.
Reference- Ultra News, 4-traders