I got to know, do the pro coal crowd really want to live down wind of a coal power plant when they will be run by the same business processes and deregulation that lead to this disaster, Fukushima, the BP oil rig disaster, etc?
Coal is only "dying" in areas with access to cheap natural gas. It's currently not being replaced by renewables. Developing countries still build a lot of coal plants.
Total global electricity generation from coal has nearly doubled since year 2000. In absolute terms the amount of new coal based electricity from coal increased by almost 5TWh from 2000 to 2021, about twice as much as wind+solar combined. (Also natural gas based electricity grew by 3.5TWh in the same period).
As long as Russia is being sanctioned and Canada refuses to export their NG, I expect coal to continue to grow.
Maybe someday in the future, wind+solar can provide stable electricity supply without relying on fossil fuels for the non-windy cloudy days (and nights). Like nuclear has been able to since the 70s.
Nobody knows exactly when, though. But simply based on the mining capacity of critical minerals, it's really unlikely to happen within 20 years at a large scale. The world is simply not planning enough mines.
