Commenting on a Cap Gemini report.
The thing that struck me was "Cheap gas in the USA has had a related consequence in Europe, the report notes.
"With this low price, gas has replaced coal as fuel in fossil fuels creating a surplus of coal in the U.S. market. This surplus was exported to Europe resulting in lowering coal prices by 30 per cent between January
2012 and June 2013. This decline has promoted the competitiveness of plants coal in Europe which has resulted in a much better utilization than gas-fired plants"."So - US has cheap gas so dumps coal on Europe - no surprise there.
However I thought coal fired stations were due to close earlier than gas powered.
I know they are allegedly closing the gas powered stations early because they lose money running them as a back up to wind power.
Does this mean that coal is now economic running at part utilisation because coal is so cheap? Or even running full time and not ramping up and down like gas?
Whatever, it seems to make a mockery of reducing use of fossil fuel.
Still, I suppose it is better than Germany burning lignite to replace the shut down nuclear.
Cheers
Dave R