2y ago

India steps up coal use to stop outages triggered by unusually dry weather

www.reuters.com

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- They're already investing in renewables. However, solar ~~is still quite expensive compared to coal~~ (EDIT: NVM, it's not, especially in India, I can only assume that the main driver for coal is the absence of capital costs for increased consumption as well as the intermittency issues)
  Wind doesn't have the short lifespan issue of solar, and is therefore cheaper, however intermittency is still a problem and storage solutions are hardly feasible (nevermind cost-competitive) at those scales.
  
  I never understood this argument for "we need coal to run the power at night" like batteries have never existed. Do you still light gas lamps at night, or would you use an electric torch?
- Close to 15% India's energy needs already being met with solar. What do you mean "why not invest"?
Planetwide back to back to back multi-day consecutive records being broken.
Reuters: Well that's a bit unusual.
Should we tell them?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - India has stepped up the use of coal to generate electricity in a bid to stop outages caused by lower hydroelectricity output, and as an increase in renewables is struggling to keep pace with record power demand.
The government has repeatedly defended the use of coal citing lower per capita emissions compared with richer nations, and rising renewable energy output.
Analysts and industry officials attribute the higher power use to farmers using more electricity to irrigate fields due to insufficient rain, intermittency of renewables, and increased cooling demand with warmer-than-usual temperatures.
Electricity supply fell short of demand by 780 million units in August, the data showed, marking the highest shortage since April 2022, when India faced its worst power cuts in six and a half years.
Weather officials expect country-wide rainfall in September to be in line with the long-term average, possibly providing some respite to utility operators.
Coal's share in output rose to 74.2% in the eight months that ended in August, the Grid India data showed, compared with 72.9% in the same period last year and on track for a third consecutive annual increase.
The original article contains 574 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Hair of the dog, y'know?

11 comments