For now , we need coal as a baseload supply along with gas . I don ’ t see Germany , Poland and some central and eastern European countries meeting demand without coal generation . As more renewable capacity is built , more flexible generation or storage will be needed to counter the intermittency of solar ( on a daily basis ) and wind ( for longer periods ). Low start-up costs and major flexibility will be crucial in most countries with heavy renewable development , but this will not be provided by coal .
In countries where renewable development is currently lagging , some form of baseload generation may be necessary . Is this going to be coal ? Maybe , but even relatively poor countries are looking to invest in alternatives to coal .
Would a complete phase-out of coal lead to too much reliance on gas and / or nuclear to fill the gaps in periods of low renewable generation ? The main question there is : how big would those gaps be and how long would they remain ? Filling the gaps around renewables requires very fast ramping speeds as can be observed in the British and Netherlands markets . Coal is much less suited for this than gas or pumped storage . A high baseload generation , be it with nuclear or coal , can lead to inflexibility and extreme ( negative and positive ) price fluctuations that we ’ ve seen recently in Belgium and France .
A lower reliance on gas is politically important at the moment , but the climate consequences of keeping coal online are significant . With a large share of the public ( and the politicians they vote for ) rejecting the use of coal for power generation , the energy transition may well speed up , introducing new fuels and other types of flexibility . So , ultimately ,
Jean-Paul Harreman www . enappsys . com
“
does coal have a future ? In the short term , yes ; in the long term , no . The political direction of Europe and beyond is clear and public opinion is also clear : while coal / lignite generation is currently tolerated , it ’ s clear that this is seen as a necessary evil to cope with the current energy crisis . There ’ s simply no support for keeping coal plants open any longer than absolutely necessary . ■
[ Details correct at time of writing ]
Currently , coal is strongly entrenched in German energy systems
“
Jean-Paul Harreman is director of EnAppSys BV . He established EnAppSys BV in the Netherlands in February 2017 and since then has grown the company ’ s presence across Europe , building a solid customer base for EnAppSys ’ popular IT platform . The business is a highly respected provider of data , consultancy and information services to companies in the energy and power generation markets . These services are used by generators , stakeholders , suppliers and traders to improve their understanding and maximize the value they are able to extract from the market .
m-mtoday . com 21