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I don’t understand why China is building so many coal plants - for several years it’s been reported that they run them way, way under capacity.
by jes5199 5y ago
I don’t understand why China is building so many coal plants - for several years it’s been reported that they run them way, way under capacity.
- jdhn 5y agoJobs program, perhaps?
- philipkglass 5y agoI think that's one big reason. It's easier to build unneeded power plants than to figure out how to retrain people and move them into new jobs. It's something that other countries struggle with too. Fortunately (?) in the US there's less pressure to keep people employed with makework so unneeded coal plants shut down and former employees sink or swim on their own.
- sudosysgen 5y agoI'd guess for baseload?
- azernik 5y agoIt's because the optimistic narrative about the reasons for coal's decline are misleading. Some of the competition is renewables. A lot of it is natural gas. Countries are usually building a mix of fossil fuel and renewable generation. If you're a great power, have little natural gas or oil accessible by land (either in your own territory or through friendly neighbors), and have peer rivals with enormous navies, coal becomes very attractive as the fossil part of your energy mix for security reasons.
- foota 5y agoEnergy Guarantees? Maybe they want to protect their baseload from a lack of natural gas.