India Drives a Global Surge in New Coal Mine Plans

India has emerged as the world's leading builder of coal power capacity, with plans for up to 638 million metric tons of new capacity in a year. This represents a 11% increase in global total for the year, according to Global Energy Monitor's data cited by Reuters. India's strategy for energy security mirrors that of China, utilizing all forms of power generation to meet rapidly growing demand.

The country aims to boost domestic coal production significantly, targeting 1.15 billion metric tons for the current fiscal year and 1.5 billion metric tons in fiscal 2026/27. However, globally, new coal mine additions declined by nearly 40% last year, falling to 113 million tons annually.

Experts argue that despite the decline, coal remains a crucial part of India's power system for the next two decades. Rajnath Ram from NITI Aayog stated that coal will continue to play a significant role for the foreseeable future. India, the world's second-largest importer and user of coal after China, has been utilizing domestic coal to power 5.7 gigawatts of capacity at 18.7-GW plants using imported coal throughout the first half of the year.

Efforts are underway to convert another 4.3 GW of capacity to run on domestic coal. Some Indian power plants even sourced up to 70% of their coal domestically as of June. The shift towards domestic coal is driven by higher domestic production and the expansion of renewable energy installations. India has been successful in reducing its thermal coal imports and has been making progress in this area recently.