In post-Covid-19 times, renewable energy to face stiff competition from fossil fuels

The lessons learnt by countries using significant amounts of renewable energy (RE) are important for India, which is set to announce a bailout package for the power sector shortly.

Faced with the herculean task of restarting and reviving their economies, many major countries are going backwards on their promises to promote RE. Some energy-rich economies are even relaxing environmental restrictions.

Coal mining and coal-power are getting renewed support in countries where it is a prominent source of energy or export revenue.

Most of the bailout packages do not have much reference to electricity or fossil fuel sector, expect South Korea where coal-power is the single largest contributor (45 per cent) in the generation mix.