Dreams of a green factory (and the reality)

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Editor's note: For much of late March through May, many parts of India were reeling under power shortages in the middle of an oppressive, historic heatwave. Daylong power cuts to industry and households became common for a few weeks and passenger trains were—and still are—being cancelled to facilitate the movement of coal from the mining belt to power plants. There were multiple reasons behind these shortages, but much of it came down to perpetually cash-starved power generators not being able to pay for coal to arrive at their plants on time. Prices of imported coal trebled after Russia invaded Ukraine, killing the economics of power plants dependent on imported coal. Since power plants function in a regulated market, they can’t arbitrarily pass on price hikes to consumers. So, instead of losing money on every unit of power produced, they chose not to run. Domestic coal faced severe problems in responding to the sudden spike in demand, given there are significant logistical bottlenecks in moving coal from eastern to western India. With March temperatures soaring to record highs, electricity demand surged, leading to …