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| Wed, 11th Mar 2020 12:50:00 |
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Call to cancel new coal plants worldwide as renewables ‘out-compete’ on cost |
Coal power developers risk wasting hundreds of billions of pounds as new renewables are now cheaper than new coal plants, a report has warned.
In all major markets from the US to Europe, China, India and Australia, it already costs less to generate power from installing new wind or solar farms than new coal plants, the latest study from think tank Carbon Tracker found.
By 2030, it could be cheaper to generate electricity by building new renewable facilities than to run existing coal-fired power stations – in all markets, the researchers predict.
Already, four-fifths (82 per cent) of the UK's remaining 12 gigawatts of operating coal power costs more than new renewables, Carbon Tracker said.
In the UK, a cost on carbon pollution called the carbon price floor, along with falling demand and subsidies for renewables, has helped push most coal off the system ahead of a phase-out date which was recently moved forward to October 2024.
Across the world, some 60 per cent of coal plants are generating electricity at a higher cost than the cost of power produced from building and running new renewable schemes, the think tank report said.
Carbon Tracker is urging governments and investors to cancel the vast amount of coal projects announced, permitted or under construction around the world – or waste $638bn (£495bn) in capital investment.
Matt Gray, Carbon Tracker co-head of power and utilities and co-author of the report, said: "Renewables are out-competing coal around the world and proposed coal investments risk becoming stranded assets which could lock in high-cost coal power for decades."
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