That takes a lot of power generation, and a lot of power generation can cost a lot of money -- far more than the citizens of said developing country can afford.
So the alternative for these developing nations is to fund their growth with electric power generation that is as efficient as it is cheap, even if said power generation isn't up to our environmental standards.
That generally means coal-fired power plants.
And do you know which countries have a lot of them? China and India, both of which are now facing power shortages this winter due to a global dearth of coal.
But India is looking to be especially hard-hit.
"If coal supply doesn't improve, there will be a blackout in Delhi in two days," said the national capital's Power Minister Satyendra Jain this weekend. "The coal-fired power plants that supply electricity to Delhi have to keep a minimum coal stock of one month, but now it has come down to one day."
More than half the country's 135 coal-fired plants, which supply roughly three-quarters of India's electricity, are watching their coal stocks be depleted to levels that can only guarantee power for three days before New Delhi is likely to suffer rolling blackouts, according to NDTV.
"Our request to the centre is that railway wagons should be arranged and coal should be transported to the plants soonest. All the plants are already running in only 55 percent capacity," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government said.
Delhi has a 1,300 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Bawana on the city's outskirts, but it wouldn't be enough to power the city. "All three companies in Delhi are distributors and not power producers. We depend on the centre's plants. If the supply does not come, then after two days there will be a blackout in the whole of Delhi," Jain said.
NDTV notes further:
Energy supplies are under strain globally as prices surge and demand and supply chains are strained by the recovery of consumption following lockdowns to contain the pandemic.
Mr Kejriwal today tweeted he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his intervention in making adequate arrangements of coal and gas to power plants supplying electricity to the city.
"Delhi could face a power crisis. I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it. In the meanwhile, I wrote a letter to Hon'ble PM seeking his personal intervention," he tweeted.
Jain went on to complain that the crisis is manufactured because screeching liberals in the U.S. and throughout the West are pushing unintelligent political leaders to wean their countries off of affordable, plentiful fossil fuels without having the resources and infrastructure in place (or the technology) to produce an equal amount of power using renewables.
The issue of not having enough coal in India is "a man-made crisis, just as the crisis of medical oxygen supplies during the COVID second wave," he said.
"But if nothing else, India's situation illustrates just how far away humanity is from being able to survive without coal, since global coal production accounts for 40% of energy produced, especially in major emerging economies like China and India," Zero Hedge reported.
It may not be the best source of power, but without coal, there will be plenty of people who will freeze to death this winter.
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