India plans ‘aggressive’ coal production through next 25-30 years: ministers

摘要

India’s expanding economy will make the country a key driver of global energy demand in the coming decades, fueled primarily by thermal coal while also adding more renewable energy and natural gas capacity, ministers said at the India Energy Forum in New Delhi Tuesday. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways as well as Commerce & Industry, Pralhad Joshi, Minster of Coal & Mines, Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of Power as well as New & Renewable Energy, and Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, discussed India’s coal production of the last few years, the additional demand yet to be filled and the future of the coal industry amid a landscape increasingly dominated by carbon neutral policies. The world’s third-largest energy consumer — and soon to be the second-largest coal producer — will continue to develop coal-fired power for the next 25-30 years, after a jump in coal production over the last five years when more than 200 million mt was added.