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Friday, April 21st, 2017

Europe’s Coal Power Is Going up in Smoke — Fast

Author:     Jess Shankleman , Tino Andresen , and Mathew Carr
Source:     Bloomberg
Publication Date:     April 19, 2017, 1:04 AM PDT
 Link: Europe’s Coal Power Is Going up in Smoke — Fast
Stephan:   America is going one way, and most of the rest of the world is going another. As it plays out, my prediction is that unless there is immediate and massive change toward social wellbeing -- which I think unlikely -- the net-net will be the diminishment of the United States.  Indeed as I look at social outcome trends that are taking shape under Trump, the reduction of America's importance in the world is the principal geopolitical trend I discern.

The long goodbye for coal in Europe is accelerating as the cost of shifting to green energy plunges.

Companies including Drax Group Plc, Steag GmbH to Uniper SE are closing or converting coal-burning generators at a record pace from Austria to the U.K., made obsolete by competition from cheaper wind and solar power. After more than 500 years of using the carbonaceous rock — which fueled the industrial revolution even as emissions warmed the atmosphere — the continent simply can’t afford it anymore and is moving on.

“It’s an entirely different fuel-price world,” said Johannes Truby, an analyst at the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Since 2012, the agency has cut its outlook for European Union coal use in 2030 by 12 percent and now expects just 114 gigawatts of capacity will remain by then, compared with 177 gigawatts in 2014, the latest annual data available.

Countries including the U.K., France, Portugal, Austria and Finland are phasing out coal with policies in place to end […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Friday, April 21, 2017 at 7:21 am

    Why can’t Trump and his administration see the light “of solar” and feel the wind “of wind power” and hear the roar of the ocean “of off-shore energy farms”? Are they just not paying attention to the rest of the world? Or, are they just stupid?