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Actually, that was once true, but coal is no longer economical. Renewables are approaching the marginal operating cost for coal plants. It's already silly to bu
by eloff 7y ago
Actually, that was once true, but coal is no longer economical. Renewables are approaching the marginal operating cost for coal plants. It's already silly to build a new coal plant, because it costs more than other options. But once costs of renewables drop below the operating cost of coal, then you can save money by replacing existing plants. This is already true for less efficient coal plants and in the most sunny or windy places. Which is why you see coal plants being shut down.
The situation is complicated by lack of practical grid storage, but using gas plants that can spin up and down quickly plus renewables is currently more economical than new coal. Partly because fracked gas is cheap.
- VBprogrammer 7y ago> Partly because fracked gas is cheap. Indeed. It's easy to look at a 2% drop and pat everyone on the back for buying a shiny new Tesla and installing solar panels on their roof but the fact is the drop is just because per unit mass Gas has a higher concentration of Hydrogen and less Carbon. I mentioned above, the current situation with Gas prices being driven down won't last forever. Not to mention that there is plenty of controversy around fracking to start off with.
- beat 7y agoRenewables are already far cheaper than coal. That's what's driving their growth. The biggest limit on renewable growth right now is available capital.
- eloff 7y agoThey are cheaper than new coal. They are not quite cheaper than the operating cost of existing, large coal plants, with a few exceptions, last I checked. But that may be only a couple years away now.