[ExI] Trump Is Obsessed With Oil, but Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: [ExI] Trump Is Obsessed With Oil, but Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World

 

On Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 9:50 PM <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > wrote:

 

> Coal plants are not at all complicated.  All the equipment to make those go are with us.

 

Because of advances in technology, coal is no longer an economically competitive way of producing electrical energy.  

 

A new new coal power plant would produce electrical energy at a cost between $69 and $169 per megawatt-hour.

 

Wind costs $27 to $53 per MWh. 

 

Solar costs between $38 to $78 per megawatt-hour. 

 

Natural gas turbines between $48 to $109.

 

John K Clark

 

 

 

 

 

John these are the numbers Californians were told as well.  But the power company disputed them, saying the cost of intermittent unpredictable power generation grows dramatically once the percentage goes over about 15 to 16%.  The costs quoted do not include the cost of energy storage needed to meet reliability specifications.

 

The political literature used comparisons with Washington state, which has the dams on the Columbia River and nice steady reliable wind blowing thru the Columbia River Gorge.  California has nothing analogous to that.

 

We still see examples of the conflation of power generation and power storage, as is seen in the title of this thread, as well as politicization of technology.

 

We learned over the past decade that the power company was telling the truth.  But the truth is more complicated than the subtleties the politicians were able to sell.  In politics, simplicity sells.  In technology, the best solution is often complicated.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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