India's desert energy megaproject meets coal's everyday economics

A German report travels from Khavda's solar panels and planned batteries to Dhanbad, where cheap fuel and steelmaking underpin the case for coal.

Channel: ZDFheute Nachrichten ·

GermanyStory of November 8, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of ZDFheute Nachrichten's most watched videos since yesterday, with 142,843 views.

ZDFheute Nachrichten: The news division of ZDF, a German public broadcaster. 1.9M subscribers and 2.1B views.

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0:43Textile trader Khima Bhai directs Hano toward the solar and wind installations in Gujarat's salt desert.
2:08Project leader Singh outlines planned generating capacity of around 30 gigawatts.
2:44Singh describes planned battery storage of about 50 gigawatt-hours to help stabilize electricity supply.
3:47Tea seller Karu Yadav explains that coal costs less than gas, near burning coal seams in Dhanbad.
4:54Coke-plant owner Poddar argues that steelmaking and India's development ambitions sustain demand for coal.

For tea seller Karu Yadav, India's energy dilemma comes down to the cost of boiling water. Coal is cheap, he explains; switching to gas would make his work more expensive. Around him in Dhanbad, coal seams burn near people's homes.

His account supplies the everyday counterpoint to an enormous renewable-energy project in a report by Germany's public broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), published on ZDFheute Nachrichten. Correspondent Johannes Hano travels between the salt desert of Gujarat, near Pakistan, and the coal-producing city of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, eastern India.

In Gujarat, local textile trader Khima Bhai points the way toward the solar panels and wind turbines of Khavda Renewable Energy Park. After hours on dusty roads, Hano reaches a landscaped headquarters and a control room lined with large screens.

Project leader Col. Amartej Singh describes plans for around 30 gigawatts of generating capacity. The park combines wind and solar power, rather than relying on sunshine alone. Singh also outlines planned battery storage of about 50 gigawatt-hours, intended to help stabilize supply when generation fluctuates. These are plans for the project's scale, not a statement that all that capacity is already operating.

The journey to Dhanbad changes the question from how much renewable power India can build to what coal still provides. Yadav describes its affordability for ordinary people. Coke-plant owner Vaibah Poddar, interviewed in a luxury hotel, argues that coal remains fundamental to steel production and economic growth. He links that argument to the government's ambition to make India a developed country by 2047.

The report presents expanding electricity demand, storage needs and industrial dependence as reasons a vast renewable buildout has not simply displaced coal. It closes away from the desert control room, with workers laboring inside a coke plant.

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