“By the time the coal-fired plants come up to full capacity
because of increasing demand, the price of renewables will be lower than the price of coal.”
Based on December data from the Central Electric Authority, Mr. Mathur’s institute reported in March
that India might be able to meet its additional power needs in the future with renewable energy.
Experts now say that India not only has no need of any new coal-fired plants for at least a decade, given
that existing plants are running below 60 percent of capacity, but that after that it could rely on renewable sources for all its additional power needs.
Mr. Trump has come too late” to slow the transition to renewable energy, said Ajay Mathur, director general
of the Energy Resources Institute, a New Delhi policy center closely associated with the government.
The price needs to fall to $100 per kilowatt-hour for renewable energy to be comparable in price to coal, Mr. Mathur says.
In approving proposals for new solar power plants, the Indian government seeks bids from prospective
builders who compete to pledge the lowest price at which they anticipate selling power.
Besides reducing the choking pollution in India’s cities, moving to electric vehicles also makes sense because the country has excess generation capacity in the underused coal-fired plants
and is too heavily reliant on petroleum imports, which present a geopolitical risk.
