Coal to continue to act as the base load for foreseeable future, says WCA chief

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Coal will continue to act as the base load for foreseeable future in India and China, says Benjamin Sporton, World Cola Association (WCA) chief executive.

"I’ve just returned from India and China, where coal will continue to act as the base load for the foreseeable future – in China and India coal provides more than 50% of the energy mix,” the WCA chief said in a statement.

"To put in some context, even with the cancellation of some proposed plants, planned capacity additions in India are still more than three times greater than Germany, a major coal user,” he added.

According to him 24 countries (including China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh) representing over 50% of emissions identified a role for low emission coal in their climate pledges submitted as part of the Paris Agreement.

As per the global coal feet report, operational capacity of coal stations continues to grow rising 2% in the last 12 months to 4%.

Sporton said the global coal fleet is changing as older inefficient subcritical stations built decades ago in Europe and the US are being replaced by new, highly efficient plants in emerging economies like China, south and Southeast Asia.

"97 GW of inefficient coal has been displaced by 209 GW of new plants, according to analysis by the same report. WCA supports this transition and given the carbon reduction benefits, so should Greenpeace, CoalSwarm and Sierra Club,” he noted.

In the last five years as China became the largest solar and wind market in the world – it also added 229 GW of coal power. Thus, increasing coal generation by a third. Renewables complement rather than displace coal – a trend that is seen across Asia.

In India’s case, the IEA has said that India's coal demand will see the biggest growth over next five years with annual average growth rate of 5% by 2021. The IEA predicts that India and southeast Asia will be the driving force of demand for coal in the decades to come. According to a Wood Mackenzie report, there is a US$250 billion coal investment opportunity in ASEAN over the next decade.