What a difference a word makes to do a deal.
India 🇮🇳 seems to be coming to the table.
India has agreed to “phase out” unabated coal power with a pledge merely to “phase down” its use.
It has agreed to ramp up investment in renewable energy - and indeed has more than quadrupled its renewable capacity in the past 10 years . It plans to double this capacity by 2030 - providing half its needs ….
They say that to solve a problem , one needs to spend much of the tome “peeling the onion 🧅 “ to get back to the root cause !
The problem
India cost of coal is huge . With 70% of electricity coming from coal - Emissions kill 112,000 Indians each year.
Why then does it still burn so much coal? The Evonomist identifies 4 problems
- India’s population of 1.4bn, is growing and electricity use is soaring and needs to add capacity equivalent to all of the EU’s output over the next 20 years, (International Energy Agency. )
- Making solar power, an obvious solution for India is a money problem The electricity grid is old and needs an upgrade l. Distribution companies have a collective debt of $80bn, and do not have the funds to make the investments required to store and transmit renewable energy reliably.
- India and China are united by a sense of historical injustice. Their leaders feel that the West, after blazing through mountains of coal on its way to becoming rich, is unfairly trying to prevent them from doing the same. Indians, especially, feel hard done by. On a per person basis it burns a little more than a third of what America does.
- Coal is big business - “Coalgate” - mining contracts were handed out to government cronies at knockdown prices. 10-15m Indians depend on coal for their livelihood, many of them miners in the country’s poorest states, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Potential Solutions
- Refurbish existing plants so they would burn coal more cleanly.
- Improve distribution infrastructure so it could exploit its solar potential fastest.
- Reskill and upskill coal workers and miners —giving them a healthier future for themselves and their children.
Why does the world not help them provide 100pc of its electricity needs by renewables by 2030? This is for the benefit of the entire species!
Theory of constraints
we should look at the process that so many Engineers have used to solve wicked problems…..
- Identify the problem / constraint
- Focus all energy and effort to remove that constraint - (global connection, collaboration and contribution )
- Identify where the next constraint is
- Rinse and repeat
What money is needed?
Why would money be a constraint?
Let’s work together to remove that constraint
Inspired from https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/11/16/why-is-india-clinging-to-coal
Why is India clinging to coal? from TheEconomist