One of the world’s newest, most contested coal-burning power plants began operation in December. By January, it had ground to a halt for a month. Again, in April, it sat idle for 23 days.
The reason: It didn’t have coal to burn.
That meant it couldn’t produce any electricity nor make money to recoup the $2 billion it cost to build.
The troubles facing the Maitree power plant are a glimpse into the risks that other new coal plants around the world could face in coming years, for a variety of reasons. Maitree shut down temporarily because of a shortage of foreign currency to import coal from Indonesia.
