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Assessing the potential for solar development on coal mine land in India
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India’s solar electricity generation capacity is concentrated in its western and southern states, while coal mining is concentrated in central and eastern India. Previous studies have found that increasing solar capacity in India’s coal belt may ameliorate the distributional consequences of electricity decarbonization, but we lack detailed assessments of the tradeoffs involved. Here, we evaluate the costs and emissions reduction benefits associated with building solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity on land currently used for opencast (OC) coal mining in India. We use 50 years of weather data to quantify the P10, P50, and P90 capacity factors and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for identically configured PV arrays at the 100 largest OC mines. At 97 mines, the expected LCOE is higher than at the Pavagada Solar Park in southern India that we use as a benchmark. When adjusted for the value of avoided CO2 emissions, 49 mines spread across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh have lower social costs of solar generation than Pavagada. For the 50 largest mines, we compile acreage information and estimate that they can support up to 28 GW of new solar PV capacity, approximately one-third of India’s total solar PV capacity today. This capacity would avoid approximately 47 MtCO2, or US$2.4 billion in CO2 damages, per year at abatement costs between US$15–28/tCO2. Mines expected to be depleted by 2025 may support annual abatement of up to 4.8 MtCO2 yr−1, with additional abatement of 6.5 MtCO2 yr−1 and 8.6 MtCO2 yr−1 possible at mines closing between 2025–30 and 2030–35, respectively. Our results show that depleted mine land in India’s coal belt can play a meaningful role in an electricity capacity mix that minimizes the combination of private costs and CO2 damages.
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Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
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air pollution coal electricity energy transition India Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment General Environmental Science Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy