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The expensive part of coal power is the coal itself. The upfront costs for the power plant are quite low. This is the opposite of solar. It has an very high upf
by Aunche 4y ago
The expensive part of coal power is the coal itself. The upfront costs for the power plant are quite low. This is the opposite of solar. It has an very high upfront cost, but for the next couple decades, you only need to pay a little for maintenance, so the amortized costs are cheaper. However, poorer areas of China can't afford this large upfront cost, but they still have a lot of demand for energy, so they build new coal plants.
- kristopolous 4y agoAlso this is always how transitions look. Incandescent bulbs were still sold next to LEDs, CRTs were still manufactured during the LCD transition, platter drives are still for sale during the SSD revolution, people still buy gas cars. There is a time before commodity prices are hit at scale but when it happens, the price floor of the new technology will be below the price floor of the old technology (for instance the cost of a big screen TV) and that's when the old technology finally exits. Solar still has a long way to fall. We're in a transition and they always look like this.
- FooBarWidget 4y agoChina doesn't build coal plants because areas cannot afford nuclear. They do so because need they need stop gap solutions. Their new coal plants use supercritical CO2, and phase out older, less efficient and more polluting coal plants. Check out this thread by Chinese energy sector consultant David Fishman which states that the new Chinese plants are amongst the most efficient in the world: https://twitter.com/pretentiouswhat/status/1600425624291905538 https://twitter.com/pretentiouswhat/status/16004256242919055... He explains that these more efficient coal plants are not only motivated by climate targets, but also by market prices. Even these new plants aren't going to be around forever. They're going to be phased out eventually as China moves towards their 2060 net zero goal.