India’s aggressive push to adding solar and wind power capacities, particularly in the last five years, has aided the world’s third largest Power sector emitter to bring down its carbon emission intensity, albeit marginally.
According to a report by energy think tank Ember, India emitted 1,404 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) from electricity generation, behind China (5,491 MtCO2) and the US (1,570 MtCO2).
Electricity from solar and wind power helped India’s cut down on emissions considering its power demand has been rising substantially. For instance, India’s electricity demand rose 5.4 per cent Y-o-Y, or 99 TWh, in 2023, which is more than twice as fast as the global increase of 2.2 per cent, it pointed out.
One TWh equals 1,000,000 megawatt hours (MWh).
“However, had wind and solar generation not grown over the last two decades and this demand had been met by coal, India’s power sector emissions in 2023 would have been 13 per cent higher. Given the current growth of electricity demand and coal generation, emissions are unlikely to peak soon,” the think tank said in its Global Electricity Review 2024 report.
India’s per capita emissions from the power sector are the fourth lowest in the G20, despite high coal reliance, it added.
Emission intensity
Although India’s total power sector emissions have increased, the emissions intensity of electricity has declined slightly, Ember said.
The share of coal generation increased from 68 per cent in 2000 to 75 per cent last calendar year. Generation from gas and from other fossil fuels declined. In 2000, wind and solar accounted for only 0.3 per cent of India’s power generation, but jumped to 9.9 per cent in 2023.
Other clean generation fell, with the share of hydro declining from 13 per cent to 7.6 per cent. Nuclear has remained between 2-3 per cent of India’s electricity generation.
“However, additions of wind and solar were enough to increase the overall share of clean electricity from 17 per cent in 2000 to 22 per cent in 2023. Consequently, the emissions intensity of India’s power sector fell slightly to 713 gCO2/kWh, below the level in 2000 (740 gCO2/kWh),” it noted.
gCO2/kWh signifies grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated.
India’s electricity generation is more carbon-intensive (713 gCO2 per kWh) than the global average (480 gCO2/kWh), with coal accounting for three quarters of generation in 2023.
However, its per capita emissions from the power sector are just over half the global average (1.0 tCO2 vs 1.8 tCO2) and even further below the average in Asia (2.1 tCO2). This is because India’s per capita power demand (1.4 MWh) is significantly below the global average (3.7 MWh) and less than half of the average in Asia (3.5 MWh).
Electricity generation
India’s solar generation has been increasing significantly over the last two decades, from just 0.01 TWh in 2000 to 113 TWh in 2023, a major part of which was added in the past five years. Generation in 2023 was 17 times larger than in 2015 (6.6 TWh). Solar more than doubled (145 per cent, 67 TWh) since 2019.
The fastest growing emerging market economy also overtook Japan to become the third-largest solar power generator in 2023, providing 5.9 per cent of global growth in solar power.
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India generated 78 per cent (1,536 TWh) of its electricity from fossil fuels, which is higher than the global average of 61 per cent and the regional average of 68 per cent in Asia.
Coal had the largest share at 75 per cent (1,480 TWh) – the second highest share of coal generation in the G20 behind South Africa. Gas contributed 2.6 per cent (51 TWh) while other fossil fuels contributed 0.2 per cent (4.0 TWh).
Clean generation made up 22 per cent of India’s electricity mix, compared to the global average of 39 per cent and 32 per cent in Asia. The share of wind and solar reached a record high of 9.9 per cent (196 TWh), though India remained 3.5 percentage points behind the global average of 13.4 per cent. In Asia, China (16 per cent), Japan (12 per cent) and Viet Nam (13 per cent) have higher shares of wind and solar power in their electricity mix.