India's new energy plan foresees a great leap forward in the use of renewables, which casts a shadow on a giant coal mine planned in Queensland.

Last week, Indian Energy minister Piyush Goyal said a new generation of more-efficient coal generation would be brought online over the next five years to replace older, highly polluting plants.  All plants older than 25 years that are operated by state-owned utility will be shuttered.

"That one action alone will not only help us bring in more efficiency in the operation of thermal plants, but will help us reduce millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide that is being generated by the age-old plants," said Mr. Goyal.  "It will help us reignite economic activity in the power sector," he added.

In fact, the plan (.pdf link), released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), adds no new coal plants during consecutive five-year periods beginning in 2017 and 2022.  At the same time, India plans to add 100 gigawatts generated from solar and wind.  These renewable energy additions would more than double the country's clean energy capacity.

That would seem to be bad news for Australia's coal industry and might end any use for Indian-owned Adani's proposal for a new mine in Queensland.  With "no new coal-fired plants in India in the next decade," Tim Buckley from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analytics told the ABC's AM program that the Adani proposal has been left "totally stranded".  He described it as a "white elephant, and it is six years past its use by date".

An Adani spokesman disagreed with Mr. Buckley:  "What happens to the market has no implication for Adani because we are supplying our own power stations with our own coal," the spokesman said.