
Japan plans new coal powerplants - briandear
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/international-issues/japan-is-building-coal-fired-power-plants-despite-its-paris-accord-commitment/
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newyankee
This is so unfortunate. I really hope political opinion slowly changes and
people get a clearer idea about the risks vs benefits of latest nuclear tech.

Or will other countries wait till China shows them the way ? I have heard that
German end users already pay one of the highest electricity rates in EU.

My understanding is that we need 1 good baseload alternative to wind & solar
(even with storage) for events where extended blackouts due to weather events
are expected.

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muro
Good news for Australia. I once flew from Sydney to Tokyo and the person
sitting next to me turned out to be the negotiator for coal prices and volumes
from Australia to Japan. He was a government employee and it made for a very
interesting flight.

If they build these new powerplants in the right location, they can
externalize polution. Would be nice if costs of such polution had to be paid
by the same country/region, to disincentivize new coal use.

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detritus
> Japan is second to China in financing coal plants in developing nations.

It's hard enough for me to consider China a developing nation these days, but
Japan?

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anemoiac
I assume that means providing financing _to_ developing nations for the
construction of coal plants.

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detritus
Yes. You're completely right - I'm unsure how I missed that wholly-obvious
interpretation.

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LatteLazy
Im surprised they didn't go for a renewables + storage approach. Partly as
they'll have to import coal (avoiding imports was why they went nuclear to
start with I think) and partly because they have pretty abundant opportunities
for offshore wind and wave/tidal power...

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IXxXI
The united states shut down 50 coal power plants since Trump took office.

[https://phys.org/news/2019-05-coal-power-
trump.html](https://phys.org/news/2019-05-coal-power-trump.html)

What isn't the rest of the world doing its part to address climate change?

