India Just Scrapped Building A Major Coal Power Plant In Favour Of Renewable Energy

If renewable energy was that nerdy kid in the playground, then the government of Gujarat just played hero and stood up for it against the bullies—let’s call them Exhaustibles!

In a pleasant turn of events, the Gujarat government decided to forgo on prior plans to build a 4000 megawatt ultra mega coal power project that was meant to be developed by the Gujarat State Electricity Corporation, as stated in this report. Even though India is primarily still powered by coal, we aspire to become a solar superpower and have set a big goal for ourselves. The government of Gujarat’s decision to abstain from building another coal-powered plant is a step towards the goal our country hopes to achieve.

Electing to focus on the future of renewable energy developments, the Gujarat energy minister stated, “We already have more than sufficient generation capacity. Our focus is now on renewable energy. The government will encourage solar power.” Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines proclaimed that India’s commitment to curb growth of its carbon emissions under the Paris climate agreement is the basis for the surge of solar energy.

According to this report by Clean Technica, India is taking more than one route towards the switch to renewable enegy. “Not only is the country focusing more on renewable energy projects, but reports over the last 6 months have revealed that the country is similarly reducing its focus on coal. Earlier this year numerous Indian newspapers reported that Indian coal imports declined by 21.7% in January. This follows official word from the Indian government in September of last year saying that they intended to end dependency on coal imports to use up the oversupply of coal at home” the report states, granting enough reason for hope.

Showing great moxy, India aims to have 1 terawatt of global solar power; four times that of the current worldwide total. By 2022 India has committed to generating 175 gigawatt of power from renewable sources; 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from biomass and 5 GW from small scale hydroelectric project. All in all, this is one giant step towards a renewable tomorrow.