For the first time in half a century, coal-fired electricity generation in India saw a year-on-year decline in 2025, driven largely by the rapid growth in power generation from renewables, a new study by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has said.
Coal-fired plants generated a total of 1,283 billion units of electricity in 2025, 3% less than 1,322 billion units generated in the previous year even as overall electricity generation was about 1% higher than in 2024.
The overall trend of coal-fired electricity generation, though, has not changed in the last few years. Even when the generation from coal was increasing year-on-year in absolute numbers, the rate of growth had been showing a decline. In 2024, coal-fired generation increased by 5% as against 15% in 2023, the study showed.
The actual generation from coal had shown a decline in 2022 as well but that could be attributed to a lull in industrial activity due to Covid pandemic.
Apart from the increase in renewable energy generation, relatively milder summer and a decrease in power demand growth due to other reasons also contributed to the dip in coal-fired electricity generation in 2025, the study said.
Generation from renewable sources increased by 22% (270 billion units instead of 221 in 2024) while that from large hydro grew by 15% (180 billion units instead of 157), the study showed.
It said that considering the rapid expansion in clean energy installed capacity (41 GW of new renewable capacity was added in the first 11 months of 2025), India might have to revise its plans for coal capacity additions for the 2030 period.
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“Given the existing coal fleet, the coal capacity already under construction, and the substantial renewable and storage pipeline, significant new coal additions are not required to meet Indiaʼs 2030 electricity demand. Data shows that even on the systemʼs highest demand days, the full coal fleet is not needed to meet the national load, and renewable generation is playing an increasingly material role in supporting peak-hour supply,” it said.
In an earlier study, done for Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate-focused publication, in September last year, CREA had found that India’s carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector for the first half of the 2025 had also declined compared to the same period the previous year. It was also the first time that India’s power sector emissions had shown a dip for any half-yearly period. The data for the full year for 2025 is not yet available.
India is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, with the power sector contributing about 40%.
The decline in coal-fired electricity generation has happened in China as well. A research carried out by CREA for Carbon Brief showed that coal-based electricity generation in China in 2025 was 1.6% lower than the previous year. This is the first annual dip in coal-based electricity generation in 50 years in China as well, the study said.
China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. In October last year, China said it would begin to rein in its emissions and set a target of 7-10% reductions from an unspecified peak level by 2035.
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“Both countries now have the preconditions in place for peaking coal-fired power… These shifts have international implications, as the power sectors of these two countries drove 93% of the rise in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from 2015-2024,” a statement from Carbon Brief said.