Limited role for gas in India's energy mix

Gas is caught between present reliance on coal and future growth for renewables

Gas will have only a limited role in India’s decarbonisation efforts, as a range of factors hamstring the fuel’s potential use. The country is and will remain heavily dependent on coal as a source of baseload power. The fuel accounts for 53pc of India’s installed generation capacity, but produced 77pc of power generated in March this year, according to consultancy Kpler. Gas-fired capacity stands at just 6pc, or roughly 25GW, although the government wants to increase this to 15pc by 2030—a relatively modest target compared with other countries. The IEA consequently expects India to keep newer and more-efficient coal-fired capacity in use for some time to come and to identify those plants whi