Six countries have all recently announced the imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants.
Germany 270 TWh from coal, plan to phase out by 2050, half by 2030 Canada 76 TWh from coal, plan to phase out by 2030 France 10 TWh from coal, plan to phase out by 2023 Netherlands 25 TWh from coal, plant to phase out by 2030 Austria 7 TWh, plans to phase out by 2025 Finland 10 TWh, plans to phase out by 2030
The six countries will phase out 265 TWh of coal power by 2030 and 400 TWh of coal power by 2050.
The world used 8716 TWh of coal power in 2014. The world is currently using 9000 TWh of coal power.
The pledges if met will mean 3% of current coal power would be phased out by 2030.
Coal power usage is still expected to increase to 12000 TWh in 2040.
The key to the future of coal power is how much coal is used in China, India and other emerging economies in Asia and Africa and if there is a radical transformation with solar power and batteries.
There are some predictions of massive renewable energy buildup.
It should be very clear by 2024 if the massive renewable buildout scenario is developing.
There should be nearly a dozen Tesla (or competing) gigabattery factories then.
China would have to rolled back coal plant buildout and begun exporting non-coal generated electricity on any Asian supergrid.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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