More Than 40 Percent of World Coal Plants Are Unprofitable, Says Report (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: More than 40 percent of the world's coal plants are operating at a loss due to high fuel costs and that proportion could to rise to nearly 75 percent by 2040, a report by environmental think-tank Carbon Tracker showed on Friday. London-based Carbon Tracker analyzed the profitability of 6,685 coal plants around the world, representing 95 percent of operating capacity and 90 percent of capacity under construction. It found that 42 percent of global coal capacity is already unprofitable. From 2019 onwards, it expects falling renewable energy costs, air pollution regulations and carbon pricing to result in further cost pressures and make around 72 percent of the fleet cashflow negative by 2040. In addition, by 2030, new wind and solar will be cheaper than continuing to operate 96 percent of today's existing and planned coal plants, the report said.

Comments

But wind/solar are indeterminate.

[WindBourne]

We need to limit wind/solar and instead have a matrix of clean energy. Basically, we need to include hydro, Geothermal, and nukes.

Sigh.

[ledow]

When you're penalising carbon production with financial penalties, and subsidising solar and wind, what do you expect? You're forcing them out of the market.

Coal itself is profitable (even with the above 40% make a profit). It's the artificial entities around it that make it not so.

And you'll find that out when those subsidies end (which themselves only exist because they are cheaper than paying the "carbon fine"). Wind and solar are next to useless across most of the world.

Question: Given that nuclear is basically zero-carbon, and can do the always-available thing of coal, and is in the same scale of production as fossil fuels, why the hell are we shutting them down for silly child's windmills?