Posted on 02/28/2023 4:02:49 AM PST by george76
China approved 168 coal-fired power plants in 2022, the most rapid expansion of the country’s coal-fired power capacity since 2015, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) Monday.
Chinese companies began constructing 50 gigawatts (GW) worth of coal-fired power capacity in 2022, more than triple the rest of the world put together and spiking 50% from 2021, according to the report. Conversely, President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to lead to the retirement of 30 GW to 60 GW of U.S. coal-fired power plants by 2030, by making it more difficult for coal to compete with renewables, E&E News reported, citing an analysis by analytics firm Rhodium Group.
“China continues to be the glaring exception to the ongoing global decline in coal plant development,” said GEM Research Analyst Flora Champenois in the report’s accompanying press release. “The speed at which projects progressed through permitting to construction in 2022 was extraordinary, with many projects sprouting up, gaining permits, obtaining financing and breaking ground apparently in a matter of months. This kind of a process leaves little room for proper planning or consideration of alternatives.”
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Tax credits in the IRA would make it less expensive to operate a wind or solar farm in the same location of all but one of the 210 coal-fired power plants in the U.S., according to a January report by climate policy think tank Energy Innovation. The tax credits are part of $369 billion of subsidies for wind, solar and battery production in the IRA that make it less economical to operate coal-fired plants compared to renewable alternatives, E&E reported.
In addition, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to introduce a slew of six new regulations, which range from tougher mercury and air toxicity rules to stricter groundwater waste limits, that are expected to accelerate the pace of coal plant retirements. E&E reported. One rule, which will limit pollution crossing state lines, could force 23 GW of coal-fired power offline by 2025 alone, Rich Nolan, president of the National Mining Association, told E&E News.
“I mean, it all comes back to economics, honestly,” Ben King, associate director of the Rhodium Group, told E&E News. “You know, at some point, you stop deciding to invest in a plant that you have to keep putting more and more money into just to keep it running, and it’s increasingly uneconomic in the market.”
China is responsible for roughly half of all coal consumption and production worldwide, and the expansion of coal capacity runs counter to President Xi Jinping’s stated goals of halving carbon emissions by 2030 and hitting net zero by 2060, Bloomberg reported. While some Chinese provinces have described the new permits as “supporting” the country’s power grid, they plan to run at “baseload utilization,” indicating that they will be the primary source of power in these regions, over clean energy, according to the CREA report.
In November, Biden claimed at a midterm campaign event that coal plants were economically unreliable, and that the U.S. would be “shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar,”
The West is destroying the West at a breakneck speed
https://www.statista.com/statistics/270952/global-hard-coal-exports-2009/
In order the largest EXPORTERS of coal(2021) in short tons:
Indonesia 478
Australia 403
Russia 262
US 85
South Africa 73
Columbia 61
Canada 35
Netherlands 27
Kazakhstan 26
Mongolia 22
So, I would suspect China is buying from ALL of these to some extent. I would think US would be last because of the currency exchange.
“You need cheap power with surplus capacity to grow your economy. I had a friend in SC who worked for Duke at one of the nuke plants, and he stated that whatever economic growth you planned, you needed to grow the power grid by an extra 25%. “
If the economy grows 3% per year, in 10 years you need 30% more capacity without considering the government mandates to convert the nation’s fleet of automobiles, trucks, and natural gas heating/stoves to electricity.
Article quote:
“This kind of a process leaves little room for proper planning or consideration of alternatives.”
Bwahahahahahahaha.
They did excellent planning—for their future energy needs.
That is what happens when you have a government that supports having cheap and plentiful energy for its people.
We used to have a government like that—now we have a gang of traitors trying to crush our standard of living and take us back to the stone age.
Our national perve doesn’t understand civilization or economics.
Gates, Soros, new world order, and .. want working American to freeze in the dark.
The left loves killing people, it kills republics and buries freedom.
Coal is probably the single best source of heat on the planet. It stores, stockpiles, burns, transports...all so easily. Makes more sense to do clean coal that just about anything else.
Cui Bono? Who benefits from the environmentalists shutting down our industry? Follow the money.
We need to spend as much time creating laws that 'afflict the elite' as they spend writing laws to hurt us.
1. All private jets carrying fewer than 50 people must be heavily regulated and taxed $20,000 per trip to offset their environmental damage.
2. All restaurants serving meals that cost more than $300 per person must charge a 40% surcharge to cover excess health care costs for retired farm and food processing workers.
3. Wine costing more than $100 a bottle will have a 40% surcharge to offset education of illegal migrant farm worker's children.
4. Watches costing more than $1,500 will be taxed at 100% of cost.
5. All private ships and boats over 40 feet are outlawed for environmental reasons.
Quick get the smelling salts the climate control club are on the floor.
I don’t know what to make of all this.
Is this to get Greta Thunberg on the Trash China bandwagon its mother loving obvious by now that we are on a trajectory for a Ukraine style war with China.
Get the Left angry with China get the Right angry with China the Globalists want to unify us against Russia and China.
Too bad..since newscum clan own the French laundry and some prime real estate in the Nappa valley.
So far we have grown using the reserve capacity that the system had. In the 80’s and 90’s Florida exported it’s surplus electricity, now Florida consumes 220.7 Twh, and produces 221.1 Twh. That means no reserve at all in practical terms. God forbid we have a long hot summer, or we’ll end up like California. Electric rates are about to jump up. Duke’s solution is to spend 2 billion on 25 solar production facilities which will use 5 million solar panels to generate .0000015 Twh or 1.5 Mwh when the sun’s shining. What a great engineering solution :< . The plan is supposed to be completed by the end of 2024. I’m sure it will come in on time and under budget.
Bkmk
Duke just took a $1.3 billion charge for loss on sale of its renewable energy business. It sold the business after it had harvested all of the government tax credits then it handed the stockholders a $1.3 billion write down.
I have spoken to private industry policy makers in the nuclear field. They all say there is no plan to put in place the generating capacity the nation will need if the dreams of the climate change politicians are realized. We are speeding toward significant energy shortages as fossil fuel investment dries up, renewables fail to meet their promise, and investment in infrastructure (grid and generation) lags demand increases. Is this intentional or simply stupidity? Either way it will be terrible for the country.
One industry insider has told me the only way to put in place the amount “clean” power generation this country will need is to make a full commitment to expanding nuclear power production today. To do this licensing will need to be speeded up, tort lawsuit restrictions put in place, and cooperation from government regulatory bodies. With our divided Congress, and rabid leftist opposition to nuclear energy, there will be no nuclear future for the USA. It will all have to be solar and wind produced since the climate change people also oppose hydroelectric and want to take the existing dams down across the country.
Meanwhile we talk about returning manufacturing to the US. What will power the new factories, particularly those that operate 24/7? The absence of a realistic plan for the transition to renewables means reliability of supply will go down, while prices of energy rise. Who will build factories in the US if they can’t be assured of reliable and low cost energy to power the equipment? No one.
Intentional or stupid? It doesn’t matter since we are now on the road to a third world economy and society at full speed. When we smash into the wall, the bureaucrats, academics, politicians and journalists who put us on this path to a glorious energy future will be quick to blame the power companies for the failure and the greedy common citizens for consuming too much energy.
I wish someone like Kennedy would put out graphics showing the true cost of each energy type, all facility, maintenance and generating costs included.
Ie., strip out all subsidies everywhere.
Clean Air regs as far back as 2000 were PLENTY good to prevent serious problems with mercury pollution, acid rain, etc., so, assume those.
Then make the choices, allowing for best estimates of future supply availability.
Natural gas might still win out.
Might want to keep some coal around for backup in cold climates, as managing huge gas reserves can be problematic, and it’s definitely more volatile.
If so, fine, just make sure exploration and production are ramped up. Ship the extra coal to China, so they can be dependent on us. :-)
Because green energy is incapable of reliable baseload.
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