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If pumped hydro+renewables is so cheap, why have developing countries like Vietnam chosen to build coal plants instead? Which large country has been able to rep
by rendang 4y ago
If pumped hydro+renewables is so cheap, why have developing countries like Vietnam chosen to build coal plants instead? Which large country has been able to replace fossil generation with wind/solar & storage and keep prices down?
- pfdietz 4y agoThey may not be cheaper than coal plants. But coal plants (indeed, any fossil fuel plants) are off the table if we are to stop global warming. What pumped hydro(+other storage)+renewables is cheaper than is nuclear. You will notice Vietnam isn't building nukes either.
- ncmncm 4y agoCountries where corruption is a big problem have difficulty responding to honest market signals. Autocracies are worst, this way, but the US's innovation of making corruption explicitly legal also slows response to market signals. Incumbents see plenty still to be raked off people locked into existing infrastructure.