German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the Western region of North Rhine Westphalia.

German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the western region of North Rhine Westphalia.

I thought renewables were cheaper than coal. How is this possible?

  • Awoo [she/her]English
    61•10 months ago

    I thought renewables were cheaper than coal. How is this possible?

    Renewables are cheaper than coal.

    What you’ve misunderstood about capitalism is it’s not the thing that is cheapest that gets investment. The investment goes to the thing that gives you the highest ROI, return on investment.

    If it produces a better ROI per square meter, it gets the investment.

    The problem is capitalism.

    • @julietOscarEcho
      7•10 months ago

      And most often high costs mean higher ROI. The wind farm doesn’t get continued funding precisely because it produces electricity when supply is high and hence prices are low. Electricity is not worth the same at all times; you can sell your coal fired watts when the wind speeds are low and the unit price jumps up. Instead of trying to solve the hard problem of storing electricity to fill the intermittency gap, capitalism takes the easy way out of burning fossil fuels unless you force it not to by regulating.