Knowledge Resource

Accelerating the Coal Transition

Chattopadhyay D, Bazilian MD, Handler B, Govindarajalu C , Elsevier Inc. , Electricity Journal, 34(2), 106906 , 31 Dec 2020

The cost of wind, solar, and most recently battery storage has fallen dramatically over the last decade, providing the economic rationale for their widespread adoption to help mitigate climate change. This, coupled with the low cost of natural gas, has provided a key challenge in the power sector: how to economically and equitably decommission 2000GW of installed coal capacity? Although a significant part of the existing coal capacity is older, inefficient, and unprofitable, there are complex technical, social and economic challenges that remain. This Comment provides a general framework for the key technical, policy, regulatory, and economic areas that need to be addressed.