Interesting fucking headline thats easy to miss given the current pandemic going on, the coal industry is virtually in its own deathbed thanks to the Coronavirus
"Coal has been struggling for many years. Now there's a drop in demand because of the economic shutdown (as well as warmer weather), but coal is being pummeled more than other sources of energy.... Right now, coal is more expensive than natural gas, wind or solar in many parts of the country. So when demand slows, coal plants are the first to shut down."
Coal is more expensive than Wind, Solar, and Natural gas, and it's not as powerful as Nuclear. Those reasons were why the coal industry was falling apart BEFORE the coronavirus even hit. Now that the virus has become a pandemic, energy consumption has plummeted, and coal now faces the same issue oil is having: Too much production and not enough places to store the excess. The issue is that while oil is wealthy enough to weather the storm until the pandemic is curtailed, coal does not have that luxury, and shutdowns are now accelerating.
"Andrew Blumenfeld, an IHS Markit research analyst, says coal stockpiles at power plants were "basically double what it should be at this time of year." He also suspects excess inventory is forcing some mining companies to shut down...... Blumenfeld has been in the coal industry for three decades and says he has never seen such a sudden and severe downturn."
When these coal plants shut down, they will not be immediately reopened once the Coronavirus is gone simply because the option for cheaper and more powerful sources of energy exist. Coal up to this point has at least had the benefit of being such a formerly dominant energy source that it could defend the territory it has that remained the most profitable while just trimming the edges to stay relevant. The Coronavirus though has shifted the margin needed to stay profitable that for coal just cannot be sustained, which will inevitably lead to closures of minor companies and then the big ones.
TLDR: The US will run on green energy more than ever because the Coronavirus has been fucking the Coal Industry harder than most actual countries
TLDR: The US will run on green energy more than ever because the Coronavirus has been fucking the Coal Industry harder than most actual countries
