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.
    • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
      22·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Deceptichum@kbin.social
        31·
        1 year ago

        Um, what?

        Solar and other renewables have been the cheapest power generation around when you factor in everything?

        • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          1 year ago

          Oh neat, for India you’re right. I had in mind European figures, I wasn’t expecting Indian weather to make such a big difference to cost. Here solar is still, in the best case, just as expensive as other energy sources because of the intermittency and short operating life (which is why utility-scale installations have been very focused on wind).

          Honestly I can only assume that the main driver for coal in India is the high capital costs / lead time in getting utility-scale solar installed, whereas using more coal only increases operating expenses (cost of fuel) without actually having to expand existing infrastructure.

  • enkers@sh.itjust.works
    51·
    1 year ago

    *Planetwide back to back to back multi-day consecutive records being broken.*

    Reuters: Well that’s a bit unusual.