The surprising announcement by the Indonesian government that it will cap the price of domestic coal at $70/t (basis 6,000 NAR) is a sign of the issues and contradictions that the coal and wider energy markets will increasingly face in the decades to come. Indonesia’s largest utility, PLN, was surprised (as were many market participants) by…
moreHow unrelated recent developments in China, India and Germany highlight just how harsh it can be to maintain a competitive electricity mix without coal
The Chinese correction was short-lived as domestic prices are on the rise again, fuelling the Asia/Pacific complex. This is also due to issues in gas supply. In fact the government has been recently forced to reverse their strategy and restarted a coal power plant in Beijing as the gas supply is not sufficient. Indian coal-fired…
moreThe long and winding road
In a development that some might be tempted to view as the final nail in the coffin lid for coal power, wind power generation has outstripped hard coal-fired output so far this year in Germany for the first time since the industrial revolution. German wind output hit an all-time record in October at 12.6TWh, more…
more