India has turned a corner after 47 straight months of year-over-year growth in coal use for power generation.

India is the world’s fastest growing major economy and third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. While heatwaves and a burgeoning economy have caused electricity use to rise steadily since the pandemic, data from state-run Grid-India show a decrease in annual coal-fired output for a second straight month in September.

The August and September figures ( -4.9% and -5.8% respectively) compare with a 10% growth during the first seven months of the year.

Analysts attribute the decrease to higher rainfall during this year’s monsoon, which reduced air-conditioning demand ― and thereby power consumption. Higher rainfall in key states also helped hydropower generation grow more than 26% in September from the same month a year ago.

Solar generation was up by 26.4% annually in September. This is the highest rate of growth in 12 months and pushed the share of renewable energy in India’s electricity output to a record high of 13.9% during the third quarter.

Over the same period, coal production and supply fell at the fastest rate since the June 2020 quarter.

Notwithstanding these figures, Fitch analysts expect power demand to grow 8% in 2024, compared with a gain of 6.5% in 2023, mainly driven by industrial growth and overall economic activity.