Topic
power plants
Commodities 45 Indian power plants face critically low coal stocks as monsoon hits supply
India's Central Electricity Authority data showed 45 power plants with critically low coal stocks as of August 25, up from 31 at end-July. Monsoon rains hit mining and transport in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, while weaker-than-normal rainfall lifted electricity demand. BigMint reported stocks fell 19% in August to 30.95 million tonnes, about 10 days of operation.
Commodities Simple-Cycle Turbines Make Data Center Gas Power Plants Far Dirtier
Amazon's off-grid Texas data center power plant, permitted to emit up to 33 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, will rely entirely on simple-cycle gas turbines — a far less efficient design than the combined-cycle units used at most grid power plants. WIRED reports that a growing wave of data center projects from Meta, Microsoft, Google, and xAI are turning to the same quick-install turbines, with big implications for AI's climate footprint.