TimesAsiaNews.com | Bangladesh spent $2 billion to build the Maitree power plant, one of the world’s newest coal-burning power plants. It began operation in December but has sat idle for weeks at a time. The reason: No coal to burn.
Maitree experiences these temporary shutdowns because of a shortage of currency to import coal from Indonesia. The troubles facing the power plant are a glimpse into the risks that other new coal plants around the world could face in coming years, as renewable energy sources like wind and solar become cheaper.
Coal in Asia: China continues to build new coal plants, but other countries are retiring old plants or canceling new planned projects. Bangladesh, for instance, recently canceled plans to build 12 coal-burning plants. India said it would suspend new coal plant projects for the next five years. (**)
News from the New York Times for timesasianews.com
