Climate Changed
Europe's Coal Plants Will Bleed More Cash Through Next Decade
- Germany could save $14 billion by phasing out coal power
- Carbon Tracker says 97% of plants will have negative cashflow
Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
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Almost all coal plants in the European Union will be outspending their income by the end of the next decade, relying on subsidies to stay open to back up wind and solar generation.
About 54 percent of the region’s plants already fail to break even, according to a report by London-based Carbon Tracker Initiative published Friday. The facilities are kept online by government handouts running into millions of euros for some stations just to be available in case they are needed to meet spikes in demand.