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Chinese solar panel boom threatens Pakistan’s debt-ridden grid | Industry rushes to switch to clean energy as cost of state power network becomes crippling

Chinese solar panel boom threatens Pakistan’s debt-ridden grid

https://www.ft.com/content/69e4cb33-3615-4424-996d-5aee9d1afe19?accessToken=zwAGIn-mNHqAkc9p5MszNhVEJNOZbVrunRr-GQ.MEYCIQCP_k7clYhyVnULeKJI-wsrVJGBM8dzYGcvsiB-3y2OzAIhAN2kDyRoUwCvz1aFY6ELmPl6GG4N2yQStdAjW3fy4pS8&sharetype=gift&token=00163a88-7c78-4c7d-9748-49851ac0a292

Industry rushes to switch to clean energy as cost of state power network becomes crippling

Chinese solar panel boom threatens Pakistan’s debt-ridden grid

basically:

Pakistan, with Chinese financing, solved a problem of frequent rotating blackouts by building coal-fired power plants. Those are more expensive than solar, so people are installing small-scale solar right and left...which means that the coal-fired power plants aren't financially viable.

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6 comments

Sop

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Kinda weird to blame China for offering a loan Pakistan asked for. This whole situation seems to be more of a result of lack of market regulation. Western companies are taking advantage of this lack of regulation and the government’s response is to… let the working class pay even more for its already overpriced energy.

They should force those companies to use the energy they probably begged the government to provide for them or they’d leave the country, and in the meantime gradually transition to the cheaper solar energy.

match

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i think it's just weird phrasing, like, the country's grid is dirty and expensive and it's awesome that cheap solar is threatening it

Sop

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If you read the article it describes how this phenomenon is really bad for the Pakistani government who are in debt and the working class who can’t invest in solar panels and thus end up having to pay way more for their already expensive energy to compensate for companies who are no longer using it.

silence7

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Make the utility responsible for the bonds and have them go bankrupt.

m_f

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It's pop science, but The Tipping Point explores this sort of thing.

I think we're also going to see this happen with EVs and gas stations. Gas stations will start closing as EVs become more popular, making it harder to own a gas car, making more gas stations shut down, etc. Gas stations also mostly won't be converted into charging spots, IMO the most common thing is that places like Target or shopping malls will have chargers, and you'll charge either at home, or when you're busy shopping.

sonori

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It will probably happen eventually for gas stations in very rural areas, but keep in mind that you only really need one gas station in a given county staying open to keep gas vehicles viable, and you don’t really need all that much traffic to keep a pump open, especially if there arn’t any other options and as such you can increase margin drastically.