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World's biggest coal miner set to 'aggressively' pursue solar energy and continue to close smaller mines
The coal miner also wants to compete in India's solar auctions and win projects by offering the lowest prices for renewable energy. This marks a big change for the company, which produces most of India's coal.
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Mining company decides to end activities in the coal market and enter solar energy
“Coal, as you know, our mining company must lose business in the next two, three decades. Solar energy will slowly take over (from) coal as a major energy supplier in the coming years,” said CIL President Pramod Agarwal in an interview with Reuters.
The company's solar energy project with NLC India will be worth 125 billion rupees ($1,73 billion; £1,26 billion), with CIL expected to invest around half of that amount by 2024. The group has closed 82 mines in the three years to March 2020 and reduced its workforce at 18.600 employees.
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solar energy transformation
India currently uses around a billion tonnes of coal annually, making it the second largest consumer in the world after China.
CIL is by far the biggest producer in the country, with the company aiming to produce 710 million tonnes of coal in 2020-21, according to India's coal ministry.
The country is a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and has pledged to reduce its emissions by up to 35% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. Last year, the country's emissions fell for the first time in decades. While lower emissions were partly due to strict Covid-19 lockdown measures, lower demand for coal was also a factor.
