India’s Renewable Energy Push Cuts Coal Power Generation Even As Capacity Expands

Last Updated:May 21, 2026, 17:41 IST

Record wind and solar additions met nearly all new power demand, pushing non-fossil fuel capacity to 267 GW, surpassing 50% of total installed power capacity for the first time

India’s coal use for electricity generation declined in 2025, even as coal power capacity continued to expand. According to a new report, India’s coal-fired generation fell by 2.9%, but coal capacity increased by 3.8% in 2025.

Coal plays a central role in India’s energy mix, responsible for meeting the growing energy demand for a 1.4 billion population. Earlier this year, Vikram Dev Dutt, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, also remarked that coal underpins India’s development needs and will continue to do so even as renewables scale up alongside climate commitments. India has vowed to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy capacity by 2030.

The report produced by Global Energy Monitor found that coal generation fell most sharply in China and India, where record-breaking wind and solar additions met almost all new demand. In India, the renewable energy expansion also took the non-fossil fuel capacity to 267 GW, surpassing 50% of the total installed power capacity for the first time. Coal and lignite generation during January-April 2026 was nearly 2% lower than the same period in 2025, despite a record-breaking surge in electricity demand driven by an intense spring heatwave, in which solar helped meet over a fifth of the demand.

This showed that clean energy is becoming central to India’s energy security, not just a supplement to it, said experts. “India crossed a milestone in 2025, with renewables making up the majority of installed power capacity for the first time. We’re now seeing solar help meet record peaks in demand. As renewable generation continues to grow, that security will increasingly depend on how effectively existing resources operate together, rather than on the addition of new coal plants," said Christine Shearer, project manager of Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.

Coal Capacity Continues To Expand

But coal capacity kept growing at the same time. Coal projects in development have also expanded for the fifth consecutive year, and the government has set a target to add 100 GW of new coal capacity over the next seven years. The report says 10 GW of new coal plants were commissioned in 2025, while only 1 GW was retired in line with Central Electricity Authority (CEA) guidance to retain thermal capacity through 2030. As a result, India’s coal fleet grew to over 250 GW, with 226 GW used for power generation.

In 2025, India also saw 27.9 GW of new and reactivated coal plant proposals. Overall, India has 107.3 GW of coal capacity in pre-construction planning and another 23.5 GW under construction. In fact, India achieved the landmark of 1 billion tonne (BT) coal production on 20th March for the second year in a row. “This enhanced and sustained coal production level has enabled the country to effectively meet rising energy demands while supporting the power sector in maintaining record-high coal stock levels at coal-based thermal power plants," the ministry had noted.

But the geographic footprint of coal development is narrowing sharply globally. In 2025, only 32 countries were proposing or building new coal plants, down from 38 the prior year and less than half from the 75 countries doing so in 2014. At the same time, nearly 70% of coal-fired units scheduled to retire in 2025 did not do so, including 69% of scheduled retirements in the European Union (EU) and 59% in the US. In the US, retirement delays were more directly tied to government intervention that kept ageing coal plants online through explicit orders.

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