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It's a good news but I didn't expect that coal is still on the 1st place and not really trending down. I though coal was largely replaced by gas years ago...
by citrin_ru 4mo ago
It's a good news but I didn't expect that coal is still on the 1st place and not really trending down. I though coal was largely replaced by gas years ago...
- fsh 4mo agoCoal is much cheaper than gas.
- usefulcat 4mo agoIs it cheaper per MW of generated power? I thought that the main reason use of gas has increased so much (for power generation) over the past 20-30 years is that gas became cheaper.
- throwaway473825 4mo agoIt depends on the region. The US has shale gas which is genuinely cheaper than coal. Europe doesn't want to use coal for political reasons. China and India barely use gas since it can't compete with coal.
- citrin_ru 4mo agoGas allows to use combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) which is more efficient and it makes gas cheaper for electricity generation.
- throwaway473825 4mo agoThat's still not enough to bridge the gap between coal and gas. See for example this article: https://www.ffe.de/en/publications/merit-order-shifts-and-their-impact-on-the-electricity-price/ https://www.ffe.de/en/publications/merit-order-shifts-and-th... The US is an anomaly due to shale gas: https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/how-much-has-shale-gas-saved-u-s-consumers/ https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/how-much-has-s...
- citrin_ru 4mo agoGas prices vary across the world, mostly depending on if it's only LNG imports (high prices) or local sources (much cheaper, e. g. the US) or a mix (e. g. Europe but since 2022 it's heavy reliant on LNG which pushes prices up). Coal prices also vary. Guess we cannot compare gas and coal prices globally, only withing a specific region.
- enoint 4mo agoNot per-MWh in North America.
- bocytron 4mo agoAnd gas is not going down either.
- Wacari 4mo agoin large parts of the west! still good news
- DonsDiscountGas 4mo agoNobody, anywhere, is building new coal power plants. Approximately all new power is wind and solar. Which is good. But there is still a lot of installed capacity. And until new solar is cheaper than existing coal (which will be awhile, maybe never) then coal only decreases as plants shut down.
- f33d5173 4mo agoChina is.
- dalyons 4mo agoand yet their coal usage has declined in the last two years, and is projected to continue declining.
- zahlman 4mo ago> And until new solar is cheaper than existing coal (which will be awhile, maybe never) then coal only decreases as plants shut down. Why wouldn't "existing solar is cheaper than existing coal, and existing coal is not required to meet demand" result in coal plants shutting down?
- miahi 4mo agoYou need a lot of batteries to store the energy needed overnight and you have to plan for (lots of) days without sun. At my latitude (45N) the difference in solar production between summer and winter is 5x. Even with batteries, you still need a backup for a week of bad weather; so you have to choose between increasing the solar production 20x to have enough power generated in cloudy days or have a backup coal/gas/something else plant.
- citrin_ru 4mo agoIn regions where winters are dark windy places tent to be not too far away. If both solar and wind both overbuild to the extent it makes sense (say 5x for solar and 2x for wind) and batteries cover a normal daily cycle you probably will need to burn gas on 10-20% of days which is not net zero but way way better than the current situation.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4mo agoIn 2025, renewables generated more energy globally than coal (neck and neck tie, but renewables just edged out coal). This trend is likely to continue.