By Jo Nova
The trend is spreading. Coal, the stranded asset of a bygone era, is hot property again everywhere. All it took was a few weeks of an energy crisis, and decades of brainwashing against coal is evaporating.
On Friday, I wrote about how countries like Japan, Korea, and India were redirecting themselves towards coal power. Now Bloomberg, Fortune, and others are reporting this trend. As I write, Italy is considering delaying the closure of all its coal plants til 2038, Germany is reopening old coal plants. Thailand is restarting two coal plants it only shut down last year. Bangladesh is going to run its coal plants at max capacity all summer.
And the Ecoworriers are starting to fear this crisis will trigger a more permanent shift back to coal — which it absolutely will — not because of ‘sunk costs’ or any of the other excuses the greenies tell themselves, but because the oil crisis will break the sacred exorcism spell cast upon coal. Governments have been shocked at how vulnerable they are without fossil fuel energy.
People might be ordering EVs, but governments want fossil fuels.
Activists should be panicking — the whole anti-coal program was based on petty namecalling, teenage girls, and costumes — not hard numbers. It could fall over at any moment, and they will not be able to put it back together.
Italy may keep coal plants open til 2038 now:
Coal phase-out postponed: power plants remain in operation until 2038
A new lease of life for Italian coal-fired power plants. To address the energy crisis, in the event of an emergency, fossil fuels will be allowed to continue to be used until 2038 , thirteen years beyond the deadline set by the National Energy and Climate Plan, which called for a shutdown by December 2025. The extension was included in the billing decree with amendments presented by the League and Azione parties.
The measure also introduces a crackdown on telemarketing and measures to support less polluting transportation. Minister for European Affairs and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Tommaso Foti, defends the decision: “All energy sources, at least in the immediate future, must be used to their fullest extent.” League MPs in the Productive Activities Committee call the extension “fair and responsible” during a time of international energy crisis.
German government not prepared to gamble on going without coal:
Energy crisis may force Germany to keep coal-fired power plants alive
Chancellor Friedrich Merz questioned Germany’s plans to abandon coal as a source of power. “We may need to keep our coal plants online for longer,” he said at an event organized by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Frankfurt.
“I am not ready to gamble with the core of our energy supply just because we agreed on some deadlines years ago,” Merz said on Friday.
Coal use in Europe could be up 20%:
Iran War’s Gas Supply Shock Pushes Top Consumers Back to Coal
By Rajesh Kumar Singh, Will Wade, and Eva Brendel, Bloomberg
Power analysts with the London Stock Exchange Group estimate European countries could generate around 20% more electricity from coal this summer than last, if the European gas benchmark averages about 50 euros per megawatt-hour. That figure currently stands at around 54 euros.
“This is a bigger disruption than the Russian war,” said Tony Knutson, global head of thermal coal markets at consultancy Wood Mackenzie Ltd, given the impact on a larger number of countries. Those without enough gas will be forced to pull the coal lever, he added. “I don’t think they have a choice.”
Coal is back and nuclear is next: The Iran war is rewiring Asia’s energy future
By Nicolas Gordon, Fortune
Asian governments are temporarily pivoting to coal…
For Asia, which buys more than 80% of the crude and LNG that flows through the narrow waterway, the consequences have been swift: severe fuel shortages, export bans, and government budgets stretched to the breaking point.
South Korea urged households to take shorter showers, charge devices during off-peak hours and shift usage of high-energy appliances like washing machines to weekends. Samsung, meanwhile, barred employees from driving their car to work if the last digit of their license plate matches the last digit of the current date.
Southeast Asian governments are rolling out similar restrictions. Thailand introduced a four-day workweek for civil servants, and ordered higher office air-conditioning temperatures to curb demand. Vietnam’s airlines are suspending some domestic routes as the country braces for jet fuel shortages.
Thailand’s government is restarting two coal plants that it decommissioned last year.
Climate activists fear the comeback of coal:
The risk is that once a coal plant is brought back online, the sunk costs and political economy of energy pricing make it difficult to shut down again. “There’s a danger of a long-term carbon lock-in once countries decide to reverse plans to retire aging coal-fired fleets,” warns Sharon Seah, coordinator of the Climate Change in Southeast Asia program at ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.
The long term ‘lock in’ of revived coal plants is what happens when reality hits the fantasy.