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

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

#31

Post by tim333 »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #14
starving_coder wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: “Of course there are challenges of 24/7 power. We accept all of that – but we have been able to come up with a solar-based long term vision that is not subsidy based.” Headline is not possible at face value except that it is.

As best I can tell India's government is currently spending billions of dollars on solar. Maybe it will some day not be subsidy based. But as best I can tell it currently is. In fact the government appears to be spending one hundred billion dollars on solar in the next six years. By 2022. Furthermore, "The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides 70 percent subsidy on the installation cost of a solar photovoltai…

The headline's accurate in that India energy minister said "solar is now cheaper than coal." Doesn't necessarily mean solar is actually cheaper than coal.

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

#32

Post by teekert »

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.

They certainly are not. Here in the Netherlands we are mostly coal and gas based for electricity yet we want to (unrealistically) ban sales of fossil fuel powered cars. We also raised import taxes on Chinese solar panels, raising the price of solar installations significantly here. It's all for show.

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

#33

Post by TheLogothete »

tim333 wrote: post #28
gozur88 wrote: post #18

Great! If he's right, we don't have to do anything, right? No direct subsidies, no feed-in tariffs, no cheap loans, etc. We can just let it happen !.

It'll happen better with feed-in tariffs though.

And if it doesn't happen at all?

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

#34

Post by ptaipale »

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 a bit strange to say that "rich countries" are "charging too much for clean technology".

The countries generally don't own, operate or even develop the technology. The countries don't charge for it.

Individual companies, people, innovators make new technology, and they charge as much as they can, as much as the technology is worth to buyers.

If "rich countries" mess things up, it's through subsidies to solar, wind etc. which is suposedly bringing the price down, not up (though this may be inefficient).

Many countries in the so-called "developing" world, particularly those with oil-based economies such as Malaysia, Saudi-Arabia or Venezuela, are subsidising oil and coal based fuels to their population.

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

#35

Post by TheLogothete »

tim333 wrote: post #31
forrestthewoods wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As best I can tell India's government is currently spending billions of dollars on solar. Maybe it will some day not be subsidy based. But as best I can tell it currently is. In fact the government appears to be spending one hundred billion dollars on solar in the next six years. By 2022. Furthermore, "The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides 70 percent subsidy on the installation cost of a solar photovoltai…

The headline's accurate in that India energy minister said "solar is now cheaper than coal." Doesn't necessarily mean solar is actually cheaper than coal.

He said that? Can you please provide the quote?

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

#36

Post by staticelf »

levemi wrote: post #23

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…

It will probably be less worrysome than what we do today, covering a lot of the earth with animals that is horrible for the environment.

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

#37

Post by drjesusphd »

levemi wrote: post #23

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…

Those problems you cited all pale in comparison to global warming. It's a disingenuous comparison.

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

#39

Post by invalid-access »

Shameless plug: If you want to participate in India's progress towards bigger rooftop-solar, please consider joining http://www.oorjan.com. We believe we are doing something unique in leveraging banking and financial relationships to productize solar deployments. And looking for great devs right now - esp frontend :-)
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