India Used 7% More Electricity and Burned No More Coal

India Used 7% More Electricity and Burned No More Coal

All of the additional electricity India consumed over the past two years came from clean sources, and coal-fired generation did not rise at all.

Analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air for the climate outlet Carbon Brief shows electricity demand growing 7% between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2026, equal to 63 terawatt-hours, with solar, wind and other clean sources covering the entire increase. Coal generation was flat across the two years, the first time that has happened in more than 50 years, which is why power-sector emissions have now held steady for two years running.

Coal plants kept getting built anyway. India added 8.5 gigawatts of new coal capacity over the same period. When output stops growing while capacity keeps expanding, each plant runs fewer hours, and most of a coal plant's cost is capital committed the day it is built. That money is recovered through electricity bills. Clean power has capped how much coal gets burned without lowering what coal costs households.

India's total carbon dioxide emissions still rose 3.7% year on year in the first half of 2026, driven by steel and cement. Emissions from those two industries grew 8% and now account for 23% of the country's total.

The turn in the power sector is real, but so far it has only blocked part of the growth in emissions. The harder emissions to deal with next come from industrial furnaces, and building more solar farms will not reach them.

Source: the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Carbon Brief (Image: @exencial_RP)