India’s energy consumption declined by 5.9 per cent in 2020 to 31.98 exajoules, the second-biggest drop in a country's energy consumption after the US, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
“By country, the US, India and Russia contributed the largest declines in energy consumption. China posted the largest increase (2.1 per cent), one of only a handful of countries where energy demand grew last year,” said the review, which was released on Thursday.
In a year disrupted by Covid, global energy consumption declined by 4.5 per cent to 556.63 exajoules, the review said.
India also registered the second-highest fall in coal consumption, which declined by 1.1 exajoules, and the third-highest fall in oil demand, which declined by 480,000 barrels per day. Apart from renewable energy, natural gas was the only other fuel whose consumption grew in the country in 2020, rising by 1 per cent 2.15 exajoules.
India produced 151.2 terawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources last year, the review said.
Although long-term solar and wind energy costs fell sharply in 2020 on the back of a ramp-up in Chinese solar and wind manufacturing, renewable energy growth in India declined to 8.3 per cent in 2020, the review said. The industry had grown at an average rate of 17.4 per cent during the past decade.