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by fbdab103
698 days ago
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From the sustainability link: High coal prices mean that most coal plants in China are operating at a loss. In 2018, almost 50% had a net financial loss.2 Things have only gotten worse: data from the China Electricity Council suggests that more than half of its large coal firms made a loss in the first half of 2022.
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China is offering ‘capacity payments’ to power plants to keep them online. This provides plants with a source of income even when they’re not being used. Some project that by the end of the decade many coal plants will be making more money from not running than actually producing power. This seems credible if we look at the tumbling capacity factors expected from S&P over the next few decades.
If this were America, I would say this is a grift that an enterprising VC was trying to lock in as many government fixed price contracts as possible to secure guaranteed income for a plant that nobody wants to run. Build plant without any intention of running it just to collect the capacity payment checks. |
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https://energynews.us/2013/06/17/explainer-how-capacity-mark...
Australia is also taking losses on its coal generation, and building out batteries at a tremendous rate.
> Australia’s rapid shift from coal-fired power to cleaner alternatives is underwriting a boom in battery projects able to store solar and wind energy.
> The country has at least 250 planned battery developments with a potential capacity of almost 130,000 megawatt-hours, a pipeline that’s second only to China, data compiled by BloombergNEF show. While Australia still relies on coal for more than half of its electricity generation, many major plants are set to close in the next decade.
> “Operating a reliable low-carbon power system means that energy storage is imperative,” and investments are becoming “more urgent” as proposals to shutter coal assets accelerate, said Tim Jordan, commissioner of the Australian Energy Market Commission, the government’s adviser on energy policy.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-07/end-of-co... | https://archive.today/2owbd
So, the coal plants are unpleasant, but they are not long for this world, as the global renewables and storage deployment flywheel comes up to speed.