Renewables won't overtake coal soon in power sector: CIL

Kolkata: Iterating that renewable energy sources were unlikely to overtake coal as the major source of power generation in India any time soon, state-owned Coal India Ltd on Wednesday said the energy migration would happen "differently" in the country as compared to many other countries switching to renewables.

"The question is can renewables take over coal completely in our country? Not in the near future at least. It would not be an exaggeration to state that Coal India Ltd (CIL) is synonymous with India's energy scenario," CIL chairman Anil Kumar Jha said in his speech to shareholders at the company's 45th annual general meeting here.

"The energy migration scenario in India would be different compared to many other countries which have been switching to renewable sources," he said.

CIL produces around 83 per cent of the country's back fuel.

Jha said for the first time in its history, the miner's production and off take of coal had surpassed the 600 million tonnes mark.

Its coal production clocked 606.89 million tonnes while the miner supplied 608.14 million tonnes of the fuel in 2018-19.

While the production rose 6.97 per cent, the off take went up by 4.8 per cent as against the figures for the previous 2017-18 fiscal.