The mortality impacts of current and planned coal-fired power plants in India

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Maureen Cropper, University of Maryland; Ryna Cui, University of Maryland; Sarath Guttikunda, Urban Emissions Info, Delhi; Nate Hultman, University of Maryland; Puja Jawahar, Urban Emissions Info, Delhi; Yongjoon Park, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Xinlu Yao, University of Maryland; Xiao-Peng Song, Texas Tech University

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Project Citation: 

Cropper, Maureen, Cui, Ryna, Guttikunda, Sarath, Hultman, Nate, Jawahar, Puja, Park, Yongjoon, … Song, Xiao-Peng. The mortality impacts of current and planned coal-fired power plants in India. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-01-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E130404V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary We examine the health implications of electricity generation from the 2018 stock of coal-fired power plants in India, as well as the health impacts of the expansion in coal-fired generation capacity expected to occur by 2030.  We estimate emissions of SO2, NOX and PM2.5 for each plant, and use a chemical transport model to estimate the impact of power plant emissions on ambient PM2.5.  Concentration-response functions from the 2019 GBD are used to project the impacts of changes in PM2.5 on mortality. Current plus planned plants will contribute, on average, 13% of ambient PM2.5 in India.  This reflects large absolute contributions to PM2.5 in central India and parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain (up to 20μg/m3).  In the south of India, coal-fired power plants account for 20% to 25% of ambient PM2.5.  We estimate 112,000 deaths are attributable annually to current plus planned coal-fired power plants.  Not building planned plants would avoid at least 844,000 premature deaths over the life of these plants.  Imposing a tax on electricity that reflects these local health benefits would incentivize the adoption of renewable energy.



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