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Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

climatechangenews.com

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Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#21

Post by StreamBright »

mgnacl wrote: post #5

This is great news. Years ago it was considered an indisputable fact that solar (and wind) couldn't compete with the economics of coal and nuclear.

And it is still true, wind will be never be able to compete with nuclear for the simple fact that wind blows when it blows and you need energy when you need it. Unless we develop a technology that is able to cope with the huge spikes that windmills put on the energy grid and store energy in a very efficient way (including gaining the energy back when we need it) wind will not be more than few percentage of the overall energy production with the cost of having gas turbines in the system to just to balance windmills. Solar is obviously far better, there are few things to sort out but the progress we made is definitely promising.

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#23

Post by levemi »

Whatever the realities of the cost of solar, I tend to worry about a future in which we cover vast swaths of areas with solar panels and the impact such a thing will have on the environment. I don't know if anyone has done good studies on it.

A bunch other sustainable forms of energy have environmental problems. Wind generators cause harm to birds, geothermal electricity sources like in Hawai'i raise the temperature of bodies of water disrupting wildlife. Nuclear power comes with great risks of radiation leakage. Biofuel is hugely inefficient. It seems any solution comes with problems.

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#24

Post by [deleted] »

noisy_boy wrote: post #17
murukesh_s wrote: post #8

“I sincerely believe that what the West is doing in this respect is anti-development and anti the fight against climate change,” he said, accusing rich countries of charging too much for clean technology." I really don't believe any country is sincere towards climate change. Every country puts their economy before others. So expecting another economy to help you is a foolish assumption.

You are correct that every country puts their economy before others. However, India is not asking another economy to help them. India can develop its solar energy sector by itself. The west accuses the developing countries to be big polluters since they use less environmentally-friendly means of energy production. Then when countries like India try to subsidize the domestic solar energy market, WTO accuses them of il…

[deleted]

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#25

Post by tim333 »

murukesh_s wrote: post #8

“I sincerely believe that what the West is doing in this respect is anti-development and anti the fight against climate change,” he said, accusing rich countries of charging too much for clean technology." I really don't believe any country is sincere towards climate change. Every country puts their economy before others. So expecting another economy to help you is a foolish assumption.

It's ironic that a couple of sentences after "accusing rich countries of charging too much" he's complaining about the WTO ruling "India was illegally supporting domestic over international solar producers." Either the evil foreigners are too expensive or too cheap requiring protection for local producers. Or both at the same time maybe.

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#26

Post by rathish_g »

shard972 wrote: post #4
azazqadir wrote: post #3

This will definitely lower the demand for coal, which in turn could lower its prices as well. This is good, because India might still need few coal power plants, considering its population size.

Considering that India is making progress on nuclear, it would seem inevitable that they shut down a few if not all of them.

No! Solar is solar; depends on available sunlight. India is not going to shut any nuclear power plant and is working on new one or next phase of existing ones.

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#27

Post by rathish_g »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #7

I'm not sure I believe this. Is this due to subsidies on solar? Or taxes on coal? I'm not sure this headline is possible at face value.

It's the lowest bid that the government got for generating power from third party vendors.

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#29

Post by davedx »

noisy_boy wrote: post #17
murukesh_s wrote: post #8

“I sincerely believe that what the West is doing in this respect is anti-development and anti the fight against climate change,” he said, accusing rich countries of charging too much for clean technology." I really don't believe any country is sincere towards climate change. Every country puts their economy before others. So expecting another economy to help you is a foolish assumption.

You are correct that every country puts their economy before others. However, India is not asking another economy to help them. India can develop its solar energy sector by itself. The west accuses the developing countries to be big polluters since they use less environmentally-friendly means of energy production. Then when countries like India try to subsidize the domestic solar energy market, WTO accuses them of il…

> India can develop its solar energy sector by itself.

Until the US sues them and the WTO rules against them. http://in.reuters.com/article/usa-india-solar-idINKCN0QV2FD2...

Re: Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

#30

Post by rathish_g »

India has made huge investments in Solar and is gradually paying off.

1.World's first solar power airport is in India http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/14/technology/india-cochin-sola...

2.Solar power from dams http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-11-10/news...

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