BS Infra Summit: Clean energy's rise doesn't dent fossil fuel dominance

Twelve years on, fossil fuels still hold the same share in India's electricity, no matter how fast solar and wind grow

That electricity from thermal power plants still makes up the bulk of India’s total power generation, despite the big push in clean energy, is well known. 

But here’s the striking part: the share of thermal power — produced from fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and diesel — in the country’s total generation today remains exactly where it was 12 years ago, at 76 per cent. 

Data from the Central Electricity Authority, the country’s apex power sector planning body, shows India generated 1,734,375 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity in 2023-24, of which 1,326,549 GWh — or 76 per cent — came