1. Coal power plant improvements that could make them more competitive can't be done without triggering a New Source Review (regulatory issue).
2. Building new power plants based on coal gets Sierra Club types and regulators with political agendae involved, and the permitting process results in either a "No" answer or the thing drags out indefinitely while the meter is running on the project sponsor's development money. Financial closing doesn't happen until the permits are issued.
3. The Clean Power Plan added market-distorting requirements to new coal builds that made them prohibitive to even think about.
All that said, combined cycle plants are simpler to develop, build and operate.
Too bad about your company not being able to get a gasifier to work. There are people in developing countries that have been running them for decades. Perhaps H-1 visas could have solved the problem.
And also more energy efficient, up to 42% for coal and 60% for combined cycle.
"Too bad about your company not being able to get a gasifier to work."
Oh, they got it to work (in fact you referenced the technology yourself....which tells you who I worked for back then), it just was not economically viable in the face of burgeoning natural gas supplies. As you said, they sold it off, and it was eventually successful when it reached customers for whom said natural gas wasn't available.
Apologies for the delayed response...tied up with church activities this weekend, and then "holiday stuff".