China, India need renewables boost as displacement for coal miners looms

In China, 1.8 million coal miners could transition to solar jobs locally.

As countries make the transition from coal-fired power to renewables through the development of new power plants, experts fail to take into account the displacement of coal mine workers that drive coal production.

A peer-reviewed study in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that Asia’s energy giants China and India would need to boost their renewables capacity in coal-producing areas in order to accommodate the transition of workers into renewables-related jobs, as out-of-work coal miners typically do not migrate for work. The study used a geographic information system (GIS) to analyse coal-producing areas to figure out their suitability for renewable energy plant installations.

China’s limited suitability
China’s coal production, which accounts for 45% of the global total, is concentrated in nine key coal-producing provinces. The study found that the majority of coal mining areas have limited suitability for both solar and wind power. Only 5% of the coal mining areas are suitable for both power types and most of the locations are in Inner Mongolia.

The study has found that 5.73GWe of solar capacity would need to be installed in each active mining area in order to accommodate coal miners’ transition to solar jobs. The study’s GIS analysis showed that only 29% of the coal mining areas are suitable for solar power generation.

For about 1.8 million coal miners in areas suitable for solar power, China would need to deploy 20 times its current capacity or 3,565GWe.

The state would also need to install 7.54GWe of wind capacity, but analysis showed that only 5% of coal mining areas in the country are suitable for wind power generation. It would need to boost its current national wind capacity four times the current figure of 180GWe in order to facilitate the transition for 300,000 coal miners.

Solar’s potential in India
India’s huge potential for solar power could ease its transition away from coal, which is concentrated in five key states.

To do that, each local mining area requires 1.96GWe of solar power capacity. “Our analysis shows that in India, nearly all the local coal mining areas are suitable for solar power generation including in the key coal-producing states,” said Sandeep Pai, PhD researcher, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, the lead author of the study.

India would need to boost the solar capacity in the existing coal mining areas by 37 times to 960GWe to ease the transition for 500,000 coal miners to solar jobs.

The country would also need to install 1.96GWe of wind power capacity in each coal mining area. However, the study found that almost no coal mining areas in India and its key coal-producing states are suitable for wind power generation.