Utilities Don't Care What Shitstain Has To Say On Coal; 12 Gigawatts Of Capacity Will Close In 2018

[hatrack]

President Trump has pledged a coal revival, but America's utilities aren't listening. U.S. power companies are set to unplug almost 12 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity this year, or about 4 percent of the American coal fleet, according to an E&E News review of federal figures. More than half of those retirements were announced after Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Analysts said an economic maelstrom is responsible for the trend. Capacity prices for reserve electricity, long a moneymaker for coal plants, remain low in many parts of the country. Competition from natural gas remains stiff, with no apparent uptick in gas prices in sight. And renewables, improving on cost and performance, continue to eat up coal's market share.

"All of those are suppressing the economics of existing coal plants," said Metin Celebi, an analyst who tracks the power sector at the Brattle Group.

The closures underscore the challenges facing Trump and congressional Republicans, who have launched a concerted effort to prop up the industry.

EDIT

https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060076419

[democratisphere]

1. drumpf always operates in an alternative universe.

[Kilgore]

2. Totally logical response to the market

The article is a great read.

[NNadir]

3. It is simply not true that renewables are doing anything in this country other than to make gas...

...use surge to the point that every damned methane molecule in the ground is being or will be burned or leaked into the atmosphere for future generations to either suffer under or clean up.

The continuous horseshit handed out by ersatz environmentalists about so called "renewable energy" is a crime against basic physics education.

When a gas turbine shuts because the sun is shining for a few hours where it isn't raining, there is energy lost because the rotational energy of the turbine decays and needs to be restored for the turbine to connect to the grid.

If it is a combined cycle plant, the water in rankine cycle cools and needs to be reheated.

The renewable energy industry works very much like a perpetual motion machine, in the sense that a perpetual motion machine only appears to work if you're not paying attention.

And no one is paying attention which is why no one now living will ever see a concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of less than 400 ppm. In two or three years we'll be able to make the same statement about 410 ppm, even if we're barely below that figure today.