India's wind and solar share rose from three percent of the total generation in 2015 to 10 percent in the first half of 2020 and at the same time, coal's share fell from 77 to 68 percent.

For the first time, the world's dirtiest fossil fuel coal ran at less than half of its capacity this year, said UK environmental group Ember's report on Thursday.

The report is a half-year analysis of the global electricity transition, analysing 48 countries that represent 83 percent of global electricity.

Ember says wind and solar reached a record-high market share of 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020, up by 14 percent compared to the same period last year despite a three percent drop in demand globally due to the impact of COVID-19.

These two factors led to the largest half-year fall in coal generation since at least 1990 and meant that this year, for the first time, the world's coal fleet ran at less than half of its capacity.

Dave Jones, senior electricity analyst at Ember, said, "Countries are now on the same path -- building wind turbines and solar panels to replace electricity from coal and gas-fired power plants.

"But to keep a chance of limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees, coal generation needs to fall by 13 percent every year this decade. The fact that, during a global pandemic, coal generation has still only fallen by eight percent shows just how far off-track we still are. We have the solution, it's working, it's just not happening fast enough."

Wind and solar continue to grow in line with the global average, reducing India's reliance on coal.

Wind and solar generation grew by 13 percent in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year (in comparison to 14 percent growth globally), and that meant wind and solar-generated 9.7 percent of India's electricity (compared to 9.8 percent globally).

Meanwhile, India's coal generation fell by 14 percent in first half of 2020 compared to first half of 2019.

Coal's share of India's electricity has now fallen from 77 percent in 2015 to 68 percent in the first half of 2020, at the same time as wind and solar rose from 3.4 to 9.7 percent.

(IANS)