Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year, study show

Nearly half of all global coal plants will run at a loss this year, new research suggests.

This comes despite proposals in China to build more plants to stimulate its economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Carbon Tracker, a London-based environmental think tank.

The organisation analysed the profitability of 95 per cent of coal plants in operation or planned around the world.

Looking at 6,696 existing plants and 1,046 in the pipeline, it found that 46 per cent will be unprofitable this year, up from 41 per cent in 2019.

This is based on estimated revenues from wholesale power markets, ancillary and balancing services and capital markets, as well as running costs, carbon pricing and pollution policies.

Read the story from the Independent by Samuel Lovett - “Nearly half of global coal plants will be unprofitable this year, study show.”

The Hidden Risk in the Fracking Boom

At 10:40 a.m. on Monday, January 21st, a pipeline carrying natural gas ruptured in rural Noble County, in southeastern Ohio, producing a fireball that surged 120 feet into the air and engulfed the Noll family home, with 12-year-old son Nash inside. The boy’s grandfather rushed into the inferno and rescued him, says Noble County Emergency Management Agency Director Chasity Schmelzenbach, and together the two ran for their lives. Nash ended up with burns on the back of his legs and neck and on top of his head. “We are just happy our son is alive, honestly,” said mother Brittany Noll when reached by phone at a Comfort Inn, where the family was staying after the explosion. Their home had been largely destroyed.

A law enforcement official runs towards a massive fire
in a residential neighbourhood on September 9, 2010, in
San Bruno, California. 

It was the second time in three years that an explosion carrying a furious wave of burning methane gas had erupted into the lives — and bedrooms and living rooms — of residents living along this 76-year-old pipeline system. The 9,029-mile Texas Eastern Transmission Pipeline, which runs from the Gulf Coast to the Philadelphia and New York City metro areas and is operated by Canadian energy giant Enbridge, also exploded in April 2016 in Salem Township, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. That incident produced a crater 50 feet long by 12 feet deep and generated a fireball — videotaped by morning commuters — that obliterated a home, melted a road and sent a 26-year-old man to the hospital with third-degree burns over 75 percent of his body.

Read the story from Rolling Stone magazine by Justin Nobel - “The Hidden Risk in the Fracking Boom."

Federal budget 2017: Funding boost for expanding gas sector, but little for renewable sector

The Federal budget includes a number of multi-million-dollar measures to ensure more gas is available and shore up east-coast supplies.

Gas exploration, science and pipeline feasibility
all get funding from the Federal budget.

Investment, environmental research, pipeline feasibility studies and other semi-regulatory bodies are at the heart of the spend.

It also is very pointed in its inference that states and territories with moratoria in place on gas drilling, exploration or fracking will not have access to funds.

Read the ABC Rural News story - “Federal budget 2017: Funding boost for expanding gas sector, but little for renewable sector.”