Free but expensive.

"Nitin Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways in India, has urged a strong initiative towards achieving 100% ethanol fuel usage in the country in the near future." "E100 refers to a high-ethanol fuel blend that is primarily or nearly pure ethanol by volume." NDTV. Ethanol is produced from sugarcane, rice and maize. "Roughly 10,790 liters (of water) go into producing one liter of ethanol from rice, compared with about 3,630 liters for sugarcane and 2,570 liters for maize." Also, "Nearly 60% of maize is rain-fed, while sugarcane and rice depend heavily on irrigation." However, the rice has already been produced so it may be better to use it for ethanol rather than letting it go to waste. While ethanol will save foreign exchange by reducing crude oil imports, we may have to import more pulses and oilseeds as farmers divert land to growing maize. Since ethanol produces less energy than petrol, consumers will have to buy more of it, and it produces acetaldehyde and formaldehyde which are toxic. NDTV. "Ethanol burns faster than petrol, delivers about 34% less energy per unit, and is corrosive because it absorbs water. Brazil's flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs), re-engineered to run on ethanol, are built to counter these drawbacks and reassure buyers." The Indian government has reassured car owners of ethanol's safety but no one believes them. Earlier claims that ethanol will be cheaper were wrong. "By govt's own admission, procuring ethanol is now more expensive than refined petroleum - a situation that will only worsen as our fuel needs grow," wrote Anjana Menon. To save on fossil fuels and reduce pollution India has been investing in renewable energy. As a result, "Power prices on exchanges have slumped to zero in multiple trading sessions, despite an expected surge in summer electricity demand," because "India's installed solar capacity has risen to 154.23 GW, but battery and energy storage capacity has not kept pace." Mint. Power distribution networks within states are patchy. "Non-fossil sources already account for nearly half of installed capacity, with over 250 GW deployed, yet contribute only about a quarter of actual power generation." And so, "Between May and December, 2.3 terawatt-hours of solar power was curtailed. In Rajasthan, curtailment has reached 50%, with 3.3 GW lying idle." HT. "India is scrambling to solve a growing clean-energy paradox: the country is adding renewable power at record pace, but lacks the storage capacity needed to to use that energy when the sun sets and wind generation drops." The Union government is planning support for long-duration energy storage (LDES) which can supply power for over eight hours instead of battery energy storage systems (BESS) which can supply up to four hours. The plan was for 47 GWh of LDES by FY 27 but only 795 megawatt hours (MWh) of BESS has been installed so far. Mint. The government wants people to use public transport to save on petrol. Since 2014, the government "has splashed out nearly $26bn on building metro connectivity across nearly two dozen Indian cities. The network has grown fourfold from under 300km to more than 1,000km by 2025." Average daily ridership has jumped from three million to 11 million. But, "An Indian Institute of Technology Delhi report from 2023 showed ridership of merely 25-35% of the projected figures across corridors." BBC. Renewable energy is not cheap because we need a parallel system based on fossil fuels when the sun sets and the wind drops. "Ask families in Germany and the UK what happens when more supposedly cheap solar and wind power is added to the national mix, and they will tell you by looking at their utility bills: power gets far more expensive," wrote Bjorn Lomborg. "Poor countries are especially hurt by false claims of cheap green energy." Having pocketed over Rs 40 trillion from extortionate taxes on cheap crude oil since 2015 (ppac.gov.in), the government is now in extreme panic. If they cut taxes the fiscal deficit will balloon while increasing prices will cause inflation and public anger. So they are increasing prices by small amounts, first by Rs 3 and then by Rs 0.90. (TOI), hoping people will not notice or shrug off small increases if they did. Masters of duplicity. Diabolical.