The world’s most populous country plans to spend nearly $80bn on water-hungry coal plants by 2031
A factory worker rides a bicycle past the Super Thermal Power Plant in Chandrapur, India, February 3, 2025. — Reuters
Many shortlisted projects are located in areas with water stress.
Water access is an afterthought for thermal plant operators.
Expansion is likely to fuel further conflict between residents and industry.
CHANDRAPUR: April marks the start of the cruelest months for residents of Solapur, a hot and dry district in western India. As temperatures rise, there is less water available. In the top summer season, the wait for faucets to flow can stretch to per week or more.
According to the neighborhood government and the people of Solapur, a few 400 kilometers inland from Mumbai, water flowed every other day a decade ago. Then in 2017, a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired electricity plant run by way of country-managed NTPC started operations.
It competed with neighborhood residents and businesses for water from a reservoir that serves the district and provided electricity to the district. India, which has 17% of the country’s population, however, gets admission to to simplest four% of its water sources, is caught in a dilemma as confirmed by Solapur. By 2031, the United States of America, with the maximum humans within the global, intends to make investments nearly $eighty billion in water-intensive coal plants to strength increasing industries like data middle operations. The vast majority of those new tasks are planned for India’s driest areas, according to an electricity ministry record reviewed with the aid of Reuters, which is not public and was created for officers to song development.
Many of the 20 those who were interviewed with the aid of Reuters for this story, which includes executives of energy organizations, energy officials, and analysts of the enterprise, stated that the thermal expansion possibly intended that there might be war inside the future between enterprise and people over how a great deal water there is. Thirty-seven of the forty-four new initiatives indexed within the unpublished shortlist of future operations compiled by the strength ministry are situated in areas that the government classifies as experiencing either pressure or a lack of get entry to to water. Nine of them involve NTPC, which claims to reap 98.5 percent of its water from water-stressed regions.
In response to questions from Reuters, NTPC said that it’s miles “continuously striving towards conservation of water with high-quality of our efforts in Solapur,” which includes reusing water through remedy. It no longer replies to questions on the plans for feasible expansion. India’s strength ministry has instructed lawmakers in parliament, maximum these days in 2017, that the locations of coal-fired electricity plants are determined by factors together including get admission to to land and water, and that the state governments are accountable for allocating water to them.
Access to land is the dominant attention, federal groundwater board officers and two water researchers instructed Reuters.
According to Rudrodip Majumdar, a strength and environment professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru, energy operators under pressure to satisfy burgeoning demand select areas where they’re possibly to face little resistance. India’s complex and obscure land laws have not on time many industrial and infrastructure initiatives for years. He stated, “They search for areas with smooth land availability – minimal resistance for optimum land, although water is best distant.” The federal electricity ministry, as well as the strength and water authorities in Maharashtra state, in which Solapur is located, did not respond to queries.
Before reversing direction in response to the COVID pandemic, Delhi attempted to reduce its reliance on coal. It has put a lot of money into renewable energy resources like solar and hydro, but thermal power will still be the maximum, not an unusual shape of power for the foreseeable future. Ram Vinay Shahi, a former pinnacle power bureaucrat in India, stated that having clean get right of entry to to power was crucial for the United States’ strategic dreams due to the fact the usa makes use of less electricity in line with person than its regional rival, China. “The best energy resource we have in the country is coal,” he said. “Between water and coal, preference is given to coal.”
‘Nothing’ in Solapur?
Rajani Thoke, a resident of Solapur, plans her summer time around the water. The mom of two, who strictly controls the amount of water used by her own family, said, “I have no longer awareness on anything other than storing water, washing garments, and such work” on days whilst materials have been available. Sushilkumar Shinde, the federal energy minister who authorized the Solapur plant in 2008, while the region had already been categorized as “water scarce,” told Reuters he helped NTPC procure the land via negotiating payments to locals.
A year after the plant turned into permitted, the competition Congress member who won the election to maintain Solapur’s parliamentary seat defended the operation on the grounds of NTPC’s sizeable investment. During its creation, the plant, which cost $1.34 billion, provided full-time employment to about 2,500 locals and created heaps of jobs. He said, “I made sure farmers were given proper cash for the land NTPC obtained,” including that water shortages had been caused by poor management on the part of the local government. Solapur municipal authentic Sachin Ombase acknowledged that water distribution infrastructure had not kept up with population increase, but said that the government had been looking to deal with the issue.
In 2008, Shinde stated that residents who received land bills had no reason to oppose the plant and that “there has been anything” in Solapur. Local politicians, according to researcher Shripad Dharmadhikary, who founded the environmental advocacy group Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, frequently supported extravagant infrastructure projects on the way to enhance their reputation.
Any “problems come up much later,” he said.
There were indications that the Solapur plant was having trouble even before working. According to a regulatory filing of 2020, the first of its two units was about to start power generation by mid-2016, but had been delayed for more than a year due to severe water deficiency. The station had to use water from a reservoir 120 km away because there were no sources of water nearby. According to the sources of Dharmadhikari and two plants, the cost of cost and water theft over such a distance may increase considerably.
According to the most recent federal records, which are accessible until May 2023, the station is one of those in India that uses minimal water. According to data from the government’s think tank, it is one of the lowest capacity usage rates of coal-powered plants. According to NTPC data, the efficiency ratio of the Solapur plant is in line with national standards. According to the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment Think Tank, Indian stations usually use double the water as their counterparts worldwide.
In March, the officials of the Solapur plant told reporters that as the demand increases, capacity utilization will increase, pointing to an increase in future water consumption. According to a review of the upcoming survey on water use in Solapur organized by the state’s groundwater officials, the demand for irrigation is three times more than the supply in the district. Dharmas is the owner of the farm at a distance of a few miles from the Waghmore plant and said that developing it will provide more financial security than their current contingent work.
However, he said that it was very risky to drill a bore well and borrow money to develop the land: “What if there is no water?” According to the top local official Kuldeep Jangam, the officer was Havildar
The lack of “water neutralises all other pull factors,” he said.
Thirst for water
An employee is seen inside the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) power plant in Solapur, India, March 2, 2025. — Reuters
Since 2014, India has misplaced 60.33 billion gadgets of coal-electricity generation across the united states – equivalent to 19 days of coal-electricity deliver at June 2025 degrees – due to the fact water shortages pressure flowers to droop era, in keeping with federal facts.
Among the centers that have struggled with shortages is the two 920MW Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station, one of India’s biggest.
According to information furnished by NITI Aayog, the plant, which is situated approximately 500 kilometers northeast of Solapur and additionally in a place that is in want of water, shuts down numerous of its gadgets for months at a time whilst the monsoon brings in less rain than usual.
Despite the demanding situations, the plant is considering including 800MW of latest potential, according to the power ministry listing seen by Reuters and half a dozen sources at Mahagenco, which operates the station.
Despite having already procured its coal, the plant has not yet identified a water source for the growth, consistent with the file. Reuters inquired; however, Mahagenco, a state-owned corporation, no longer responds. The plant’s thirst for water has formerly caused tensions with the citizens of close by Chandrapur metropolis. Locals protested the station throughout a 2017 drought, prompting officers which including local lawmaker Sudhir Mungantiwar, to reserve it to divert water to houses.
However, Mungantiwar asserts that he is in favor of the plant’s growth, which he hopes will result in the retirement of older gadgets, which can be inefficient in using water. According to corporation resources, however, the station has already deferred by using approximately seven years a plan to decommission two polluting and water-consuming energy gadgets with a potential of 420MW, mentioning instructions from the federal authorities. The Indian authorities asked energy organizations not to retire vintage thermal power companies not to retire old thermal plants until the end of the decade due to a surge in demand following the pandemic, Reuters has reported.
Anjali, a resident of Chandrapur who goes by a single name, stated that she is content to drink water from a tap installed by the station near one of its gates.
She stated, “We’re poor, we make do with whatever we can get.”