At 72% Last Year, Solar Energy Grew Fastest Ever In India, But Coal Still Continues To Choke Us
India is one of the biggest adopters of solar power, with growth in solar power rising to four times to what it was just four years ago.
And that success story continues to go on, as India's utility solar capacity grew by leaps and bounds, according to a latest annual report on the growth of India's energy sector.
REUTERS
According to Bridge To India's latest report, India's utility solar capacity grew by a huge 72% in 2017-18 over the previous year. Last year, India installed 9.1GW of solar energy capacity against 5.5GW in 2016-17.
While we all celebrate the rising number of solar energy installations in the country, we should also applaud the increase in wind energy installation which grew by 1.7GW last year.
So did coal, by 4.6GW last year, and that's something to worry about.
That's right, where India embraced an additional 9.1GW of solar power installation, it also added 4.6GW of coal energy capacity -- 50% rise in fossil fuel dependency.
While India has a voracious appetite for solar, hoping to install a 100GW solar power capacity over the next 10 to 15 years, that power alone isn't enough to fuel the country's rising demand for power, of which coal comprises a huge chunk.
REUTERS
According to a 2017 paper by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, amidst growing installation of renewable energy, "coal is sure to remain a big part of India’s energy mixture for at least the next two decades." Things are changing fast, though, in favour of renewable energy sources. But not fast enough.
India's reliance on coal has led to terribly polluted cities and economic growth at the expense of citizen's health. Let's hope we dump coal and switch to cleaner sources of energy as soon as possible.
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