Cheap Solar in India Sounds Death Knell for Coal Imports“Solar pricing has decreased to such an extent that it is now cheaper than new imported thermal coal-fired power plants at Rs6/kWh. This new economic reality means it is financially irrational to choose to build another power plant fuelled by imported coal. The death knell for the seaborne-traded coal industry has sounded,” writes Tim Buckley and Jai Sharda in RenewEconomy. Suggested Tweet: Cheap #solar in #India sounds death knell for #coal imports http://bit.ly/1TrE2yJ @ieefa_institute @renew_economy Turkey’s Coal Boom Encounters Opposition While Renewables Beckon“‘The smell is sharp and smoky, with a metallic tinge, and very, very strong. ‘That,’ says Yıldırım Biçici, ‘is the smell of coal’. The tea-shop owner’s home is just a couple of hundred metres from a huge, ageing coal-fired power plant in central Turkey, whose red-and-white chimneys spew dirty fumes. Biçici has lived amid the smoke for decades but now finds himself on the frontline of the nation’s new coal rush: the Afşin-Elbistan station is planning to expand into the biggest coal-fired power plant in the world,” writes Damian Carrington in the Guardian. Suggested Tweet: #Turkey’s #coal boom encounters opposition while #renewables beckon http://bit.ly/1P87nxG @dpcarrington @guardianeco As Wales Rejects An Opencast Mine, Is the End of Coal Nigh?“[Last week] something extraordinary happened: a council in South Wales, the birthplace of the fossil fuel age, defied the coal industry and said no to an opencast coal mine. Wales kickstarted the industrial revolution with coal from the valleys around Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. But last week councillors for the area made an historic decision that suggests Wales is now leading the way out of the fossil fuel era,” writes Guy Shrubsole from Friends of the Earth UK in Open Democracy. Suggested Tweet: As #Wales rejects an opencast mine, is the end of #coal nigh? http://bit.ly/1J3eF4N @guyshrubsole @openDemocracy |