# How dependent is India on coal? > In 2025, coal generated 70.8% of India's electricity. But the real story is more than one number: absolute coal use keeps rising, imports matter, and the climate cost is growing. **India runs on coal: 70.8% of electricity, and consumption is still growing** India is deeply dependent on coal. In 2025, coal fuelled 70.8% of the country's electricity, producing 1,474.15 TWh out of a total 2,082.82 TWh. That share has edged down as clean sources like solar and wind have grown, but in absolute terms coal generation continues to climb. Beyond power, total coal consumption across all uses has surged from 1.82 quadrillion Btu in 1980 to 21.8 in 2024. Most of that coal is mined at home (1.01 million thousand metric tons in 2024), but imports have risen sharply too, reaching 2,32,811.51 thousand metric tons. This dependence comes at a heavy climate price: coal and coke emitted 2,117.06 million metric tonnes of CO₂ in 2024, a twelve-fold increase from 1980. ## How much of India’s electricity comes from coal? In 2025, coal-fired power plants produced 1,474.15 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. That was 70.82% of all electricity generated in India, which totalled 2,082.82 TWh. A terawatt-hour is a huge unit, one TWh is a trillion watt-hours. Think of it as the output of a 1,000-megawatt power plant running for about 41 days. Coal’s share in the generation mix is the most direct measure of dependence. Fossil fuels together supplied 73.35%, with gas adding just 2.33%. Clean sources, including hydro, nuclear, solar, and wind, made up the remaining 26.65%. While coal’s share edged down from somewhat higher levels earlier in the century, it remains utterly dominant. This single fuel still generates more than seven of every ten units of electricity that Indians use. ## How can coal’s share fall while total coal generation keeps rising? A falling share can be deceiving. The absolute amount of coal-fired electricity has not dropped; it has grown. In 2025, coal plants generated 1,474.15 TWh, a number that, as the chart reveals, has risen over the years. What has changed is that clean generation grew even faster. Solar and wind additions, in particular, expanded total supply so rapidly that coal’s slice of a much larger pie got smaller, even though the slice itself got larger. In 2025, clean sources produced 554.81 TWh. The gap between coal and clean generation is still huge, but the trend matters: if electricity demand keeps climbing fast, coal output can rise for years even as its percentage share declines. The chart shows this dynamic, coal is not fading; it is being overtaken in growth by clean energy only in relative terms. ## Where does India get its coal? Almost all the coal India burns comes from within its own borders. In 2024, domestic production stood at 1.01 million thousand metric tons. That is a huge leap from 1,10,224.87 thousand metric tons in 1980. Yet imports have grown even faster, from just 550 thousand metric tons in 1980 to 2,32,811.51 thousand metric tons in 2024. Though domestic output dwarfs imports, the imported portion is not trivial, it has grown by a factor of over 400 since 1980. The chart plots both lines, making the trend clear: India is producing more coal than ever, but it is also buying more abroad, adding a layer of import exposure to its coal dependence. ## How much coal does India use beyond electricity? The electricity sector is the biggest burner of coal, but it is not the only one. Steelmaking, cement production, and other industries consume large volumes. The total energy consumption from coal, across all uses, reached 21.8 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2024. That is twelve times the 1.82 quadrillion Btu consumed in 1980. While Btu is an unfamiliar unit (one quadrillion Btu is enough to power about 10 million Indian homes for a year), the direction is what matters: total coal use has risen relentlessly. This broader coal footprint means that even if power-sector coal plateaus, overall dependence could persist. The chart shows this long climb, reminding us that coal is not just about electricity. ## What is the climate cost of India’s coal use? Coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. In 2024, India’s coal and coke consumption emitted 2,117.06 million metric tonnes of CO₂, up from 175.18 million metric tonnes in 1980. That twelve-fold rise tracks the growth in coal use. Within the power sector alone, coal accounted for 95.92% of emissions, or 1,338.09 million metric tonnes out of total power-sector emissions of 1,394.95 million metric tonnes in 2025. The line in the chart rises steeply, a direct consequence of India’s coal dependence. For climate, the scale of this dependence means that even rapid renewable additions will struggle to bend the emissions curve downwards quickly. ## Sources - Ember, yearly electricity generation data by source. - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), total coal consumption, production, imports, and CO2 emissions from coal and coke. --- Source: [This Indian Life](https://thisindianlife.today/articles/how-dependent-is-india-on-coal/) · Updated 2026-06-02. Licensed CC BY 4.0. Please cite as "This Indian Life — https://thisindianlife.today".