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Coal India plans a significant capital expenditure of ?68,000 crore over four fiscal years. These investments will focus on capacity expansion and strengthening mining infrastructure. A substantial portion is allocated for land acquisition and resettlement activities. The company will also invest heavily in coal evacuation systems and solar projects. This strategic outlay aims to enhance operational efficiency and diversification. View More
New Delhi: Coal India Ltd has drawn up a capital expenditure plan of around ₹68,000 crore over four fiscal years from FY27 to FY30 to drive capacity expansion, strengthen mining infrastructure , and increase diversification. The planned investments will largely go towards land acquisition and related rehabilitation and resettlement, mining infrastructure, coal evacuation systems , and solar projects , a senior company official told ET. The four broad segments will account for over 80% of the proposed capital outlay during the period. More than a third of the total planned expenditure has been earmarked for land acquisition and related rehabilitation and resettlement activities. Also Read: Coal India's Q1 capex rises by 16.64% to Rs 3,399 crore Timely land acquisition remains key for coal mining operations as new projects and mine expansions cannot proceed without securing land, irrespective of the availability of coal reserves, the official said. Live Events Coal India had made a capital expenditure of ₹19,607 crore in FY26, surpassing its annual target of ₹16,000 crore. "Expenditures on land acquisition, development of coal evacuation infrastructure, and plant and machinery constitute the major components of our capital expenditure," B Sairam, chairman, Coal India, had earlier this week said in a statement. Going forward, to strengthen logistics and improve coal transportation efficiency, the miner plans to invest over ₹17,000 crore to support coal evacuation infrastructure, the company official quoted above told ET on Wednesday. This expense will support the development of railway sidings and rail corridors along with the construction of coal handling plants, silos, weighbridges, and roads. The plant and machinery segment has been allocated over ₹9,000 crore for the procurement of heavy earth moving machinery, construction and expansion of washeries, and other plant and equipment related needs, the official said. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
In quick succession, China has thrown a powerful 1-2-3 punch at the global AI trade. On July 16, Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI released the Kimi K3 model with performance that rivals top-tier offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. View More
China is a latecomer, but it has conquered the global car industry with electric vehicles and green tech with solar panels and energy-storage batteries. Why should the outcome be any different with the AI supply chain? This is the question global investors must ask themselves. In quick succession, China has thrown a powerful 1-2-3 punch at the global AI trade. On July 16, Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI released the Kimi K3 model with performance that rivals top-tier offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. Then memory chip giant CXMT Corp. was listed in Shanghai on Monday, gaining 466% on the first day after raising $9.8 billion. Last and perhaps most striking, China has reportedly begun mass production of immersion deep ultraviolet, or DUV, lithography tools, the biggest stranglehold that the West has over the country’s AI ambition. The global chip selloff has been brutal. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is in bear territory, while South Korea’s chip-heavy Kospi Index has lost a third of value from late June. Credit markets are also feeling skittish, questioning the soundness of trillion-dollar AI investments and circular financing led by Nvidia Corp. Bloomberg Investors are right to be nervous. In just two weeks, China has broken through the three strongest fortresses the US has built around AI. It has proven competitive with frontier models, shown that its stock market is deep enough to meet financing demands from the capital-intensive chipmaking industry, and that export controls don’t work. Since 2019, the US has barred Dutch toolmaker ASML Holding NV from selling extreme-ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography machines to China. In the foreseeable future, China Inc. might just make their own tools instead. Both EUV and DUV machines are essential for printing circuit patterns onto silicon wafers, with the former used primarily to produce the most cutting-edge chips. These developments puncture the belief that the semiconductor supply chain has plenty of economic moats. As an example, it’s not hard to see how China directly impacts Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. Already, the number of players in the global dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, market, has risen from three to four, with CXMT doubling its market share to 8% over the last year. Now, CXMT not only has $10 billion cash to expand capacity, but may get to migrate to next-generation processes faster. Lack of access to lithography tools has been a key constraint. Bloomberg The speed of China’s breakthrough is also raising concerns that Western suppliers have been too complacent. A Shanghai-based toolmaker, which hasn’t been identified, plans to make about five DUV machines this year, followed by roughly 20 in 2027, according to The Information, which broke the news on China’s secretive lithography program. Live Events By comparison, ASML’s delivery schedule feels painfully slow, making it the primary bottleneck preventing rapid AI-infrastructure development. It takes more than a year to deliver EUV machines, and the period between the company starting production in its own clean rooms and shipping — known as cycle time — was about 22 weeks a few quarters ago. ASML said that it was looking to bring that down to 15 to 16 weeks. And how about financing channels? The US IPO market may be cooling as investors ask how much global AI demand there really is, especially with the arrival of low-cost, open-source Chinese models. By comparison, China’s stock market is still open for new listings. Granted, Chinese models and chips are not at par with those in the West, and their suppliers aren’t as profitable. But does that even matter? Even if China isn’t winning the AI race, it’s disruptive enough to deal a fatal blow to the global AI stock rally. Investors can still try to pick up oversold companies, but they should always bear in mind that one day, China can just spring out of nowhere again with the next big tech development. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
Long-term funding supports construction of integrated solar, wind and battery storage assets, strengthening clean energy capacity across two western states. View More
Coal India's capital expenditure rose sixteen point six four percent to three thousand three hundred ninety-nine crore rupees. Land acquisition and resettlement activities accounted for nearly one-fourth of the total expenditure during the quarter. The company also invested significantly in strengthening its coal evacuation infrastructure and plant machinery. Diversification into clean energy saw investments in solar projects and joint ventures. View More
New Delhi: State-owned CIL on Tuesday said its capital expenditure rose by 16.64 per cent to Rs 3,399 crore in the first quarter of the ongoing financial year, with land acquisition and related rehabilitation & resettlement expenses accounting for nearly one-fourth of the total capex. The capital expenditure by Coal India Ltd (CIL) was Rs 2,914 crore during the corresponding period of the previous financial year. "Land acquisition and related rehabilitation & resettlement (R&R) activities accounted for the highest expenditure during the quarter at Rs 804 crore, constituting nearly one-fourth of the total capex," Coal India said in a statement. Also Read: Asia's thermal coal imports continue to rebound, except for India Timely land acquisition is a critical prerequisite for coal mining, as mining projects cannot commence or expand without it, regardless of the availability of coal reserves. Live Events Reflecting on its strategic importance, land acquisition and related activities have been allocated the highest capex target of Rs 4,173 crore out of the company's total annual capex target for 2026-27. Coal India also continued to strengthen its coal evacuation infrastructure by investing Rs 754 crore in developing railway sidings and rail corridors. In addition, Rs 195 crore was spent on the construction of coal handling plants, silos, weighbridges and roads, taking the cumulative expenditure on coal evacuation infrastructure to Rs 949 crore during the first quarter. Capital expenditure under the plant and machinery segment stood at Rs 819 crore, covering procurement of heavy earth moving machinery, construction and expansion of washeries, and other plant and equipment-related activities. This category also accounted for nearly one-fourth of the company's total capex during the quarter. "Expenditures on land acquisition, development of coal evacuation infrastructure, and plant & machinery constitute the major components of our capital expenditure. Also Read: Coal Ministry notifies SECL's CSR initiative for NEET aspirants "Together, these three broad heads accounted for over 75 per cent of the total capex incurred during the first quarter. These strategic investments have laid a strong foundation for the company to achieve its production and supply targets for the ongoing fiscal," Coal India Chairman B Sairam said. As part of its ongoing diversification into clean energy, Coal India incurred a capital expenditure of Rs 278 crore on its solar projects during the quarter, while investments in the company's joint ventures amounted to Rs 207 crore, reinforcing its commitment to expanding its presence in renewable energy and allied businesses. Coal India had achieved a capital expenditure of Rs 19,607 crore during 2025-26, surpassing its annual target of Rs 16,000 crore. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
Rapid rooftop solar adoption, expanding battery storage and capacity additions are accelerating Tata Power’s renewable energy ambitions while strengthening its leadership in India’s distributed solar market View More
“We don’t foresee that distributed generation or rooftop is going to disrupt the overall energy requirement in this country,” Adani Green chief executive Ashish Khanna said View More
A small Finnish town has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency. View More
The industrial-scale sand battery in Finland's Pornainen can cover almost one month of the town's heating demands in the summer and as much as one week in the winter.Polar Night Energy A small town in southern Finland has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to fix what many see as the most critical problem facing renewable energy: intermittency.Standing at 13 meters tall and 15 meters wide, the eye-catching facility uses 2,000 metric tons of crushed soapstone to store clean energy in the form of heat to provide 100 megawatt-hours of thermal energy.That's enough to provide the 5,000 residents of Pornainen with nearly one month of heat demand through the summer â and roughly one week of demand in the winter.Commissioned by Finnish district heating company Loviisan Lämpö and developed by Polar Night Energy, the giant sand battery launched last year as part of a push to introduce a flexible heat production technology and reduce carbon emissions generated by the local district heating network. Polar Night Energy said the project is estimated to have slashed greenhouse gas emissions from the heating network by almost 70% and reduced the use of wood chips by about 60%. An existing wood-chip power plant remains in operation as a backup and peak-load facility.Tommi Eronen, CEO of Polar Night Energy, said Pornainen had previously relied on burning oil and wood chips for its heating needs â but the town's sand battery was now able to provide combustion-free heating for the majority of the year. watch nowVIDEO4:5504:55Statkraft CEO: Electricity generation in Europe to double by 2050Squawk Box Europe "We're changing from a world where big power plants were doing the energy production to where solar and wind are producing the energy, then we need a massive amount of storage," Eronen told CNBC on a video call. "Hopefully a big portion of those storages could be sand battery-type of storages where we don't need rare earth materials, like in many chemical batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries." The Pornainen project is about 10 times larger than an earlier version launched in the country in 2022, reinforcing the potential for sand batteries to play a more prominent role in cutting emissions both domestically and abroad. Battery storage is widely expected to play a pivotal role in the energy transition â and sand batteries in particular have shown promise for regional heat storage, but scaling up this technology faces significant hurdles. Some notable criticisms include their ability to efficiently convert heat back to electricity and their relatively low energy density compared to traditional batteries. How does it work? Essentially, the sand battery technology operates as something akin to a giant thermos with heat-storing material.The first step is to get electricity off the grid when there is plenty of wind or solar power, before then heating up the sand to very high temperatures. The heavily insulated silo keeps that heat trapped for days or weeks before being discharged via heat exchangers to warm water for the local district heating network. "Three steps â and the key to the whole thing is the sand enables you to have a delay between the time you use electricity, and you use the steam," Polar Night Energy's Chief Commercial Officer Annette Höglund-Dönnes told CNBC by video call. "That delay is your business advantage because you can heat up the sand when the electricity is cheap, and you use the steam when normally it would be very expensive to produce steam off the grid, which is the daytime when everybody else is using it," she added. The industrial-scale sand battery in Finland's Pornainen stands at 13 meters tall and 15 meters wide. The facility uses 2,000 metric tons of crushed soapstone to store clean energy in the form of heat.Polar Night Energy Höglund-Dönnes compared the process to charging a cell phone overnight given that this can be less expensive than during the day. Asked whether the project could be replicated internationally, Höglund-Dönnes said Polar Night Energy had been contacted by teams from "every single continent," particularly by communities dependent on fossil fuels, such as coal and oil. Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use will be necessary to curb global heating, with the burning of coal, oil, and gas identified as the chief driver of the climate crisis. Renewable intermittency Jan Rosenow, professor of energy and climate policy at the U.K.'s University of Oxford, agreed that electrothermal storage technologies, such as sand batteries, were likely to be replicated across the globe."You don't need rare earths, critical raw materials and the beauty is you can also charge up the battery when the electricity is cheap and discharge whenever you need the heat," Rosenow told CNBC."And you can store it for long periods, not just two hours or four hours like lithium-ion batteries, but potentially for days and maybe even weeks." Read moreFinland's Stubb says EU should expand to 40 states â including CanadaThe world's happiest countries are targeting net-negative emissions â despite a growing 'greenlash'Finland will soon bury nuclear waste in a geological tomb thatâs built to last for 100,000 years Critics of renewable energy, for example, often point out that technologies such as solar and wind only produce energy when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. Energy storage systems such as batteries play a pivotal role in smoothing renewable intermittency by absorbing excess solar and wind generation and dispatching it when production dips. Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö, said the sand battery helps to clear this energy transition hurdle."The main thing is that we can separate the electricity procurement from the district heating production because now we are able to deliver this heating during the wintertime for one week, with one charge of the battery, and during the summertime, it even lasts as long as one month," Paajanen told CNBC by video call."So, we can utilize the low spot prices very well." Loviisan Lämpö's' CEO said the company was aiming to produce between 55% to 60% of the municipality's district heating production from the sand battery through the first few months of this year, up from roughly 30% in 2025. Finland's Climate Minister Sari Multala described the sand battery project in Pornainen as a "very inspiring" and innovative example of how to solve the challenge of energy storage."I understood when I also visited the plant when it was opened that they are now also developing solutions for maybe using electricity as well in the future, which would be, of course, groundbreaking â and this would be something that a lot of people would see value in," Multala told CNBC. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.