I don't believe that analysis is accurate. The demand for coal has been going down for years. The power plants themselves are about as good as it is possible fo

I don't believe that analysis is accurate. The demand for coal has been going down for years. The power plants themselves are about as good as it is possible for them to be and they still aren't as efficient on a unit-for-unit basis. The only difference is the installation costs which have been going down for wind and solar over the past 10 years and are still not at peak efficiency. WRT to your comment on base power, that's the main reason why they haven't stopped using those plants completely, but the problem itself is not insurmountable or dependent on coal. In the U.S. and in SA, they are likely going to switch to Natural Gas peaker plants to manage any periods of instability. And that's one of the big reasons why the Feds in Australia are pushing for that new hydro power in VIC. TL;DR: coal is on the way out, and the base load is a tough, but fixable problem.