These results are from, The Heartland Institute USA – Center on Climate and Environmental Policy using Texas USA records, as to what electrical generating systems are most. Affordable. Reliable and Clean.
Energy generation most affordable.
Pricing data for competing power sources is more complicated than most people assume. For example, a utility may be quoted at a low price for a given quantity of wind power on a day when a brisk wind is blowing. However, there are several hidden factors that make the cost of wind power higher than the quoted price.
The Levelized Full System Costs of Electricity, using the relatively wind-friendly and solar-friendly geography of Texas as a baseline, is as follows, in US dollars per megawatt-hour:
Natural Gas $40
Coal $90
Biomass (Burning wood chips) $117
Nuclear $122
Wind $291
Solar $413 (Four times dearer than coal)
Applying Rating of Energy generation most affordable
With the full-system costs established, an affordability scale of 0 to 10 – with 0 being the least expensive and 10 being the most expensive – yields the following:
Natural Gas 1
Coal 2
Hydro 2
Nuclear 4
Biomass 4
Wind 7
Solar 10
Reliability of different energy sources, ability to provide a constant supply of baseload energy.
The limited production of wind and solar power is even more problematic because those limited amounts of power production are unpredictable. Wind speeds can vary greatly on a minute-by-minute basis. The same holds true on an hour-by-hour or day-by-day basis. Solar is similar. Even during daylight hours, cloud coverage can vary on a minute-by-minute or hour-by-hour basis. And every night, it has at least a sixteen hour Sunshine drought.
A scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the most reliable and 10 being the least reliable, yields the following reliability scores:
Natural Gas 1
Coal 1
Nuclear 1
Biomass 2
Hydro 3
Wind 8
Solar 8
Clean (emitting CO2)
Every type of power source has its own unique environmental impact. It is important to focus on each power source’s full environmental impact rather than just a single component of environmental impact, such as solely air pollution, land destruction, species impacts, or water and soil pollution.
A scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being no emissions, yields the following emissions/air pollution scores:
Rating of CO2 emissions during generation
Nuclear 0
Hydro 0
Wind 0
Solar 0
Natural Gas 2
Coal 7
Biomass 7
Land conservation. Wind and solar power pose unique threats to open spaces and species protection. It requires approximately 60 square miles of solar panels to generate the same amount of power as a conventional power plant. It requires approximately 320 square miles of wind turbines to do the same.
A scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the least disruptive and 10 being the most disruptive, yields the following land conservation scores:
Natural Gas 1
Hydro 2
Nuclear 2
Coal 4
Biomass 4
Solar 6
Wind 10
Direct animal kills. Land degradation directly harms species and ecosystems. Some forms of power generation additionally harm species and ecosystems through high numbers of direct kills. Peer-reviewed studies find wind turbines and solar power equipment in the United States kill more than one million birds and bats, including many protected and endangered species, each year
A scale of 0 to 10, with 0 entailing little or no direct animal kills, yields the following scores:
Natural Gas 0
Nuclear 1
Coal 2
Hydro 3
Biomass 5
Solar 5
Wind 7
Another reason why our petition: TO STOP THE CLOSURE OF ALL THE AUSTRALIAN COAL FIRED POWER STATIONS AND TO KEEP THEM RUNNING IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE.
This includes Eraring NOW 2029, Yallourn NOW 2032), Bayswater in 2033, with Loyang A in 2045 and all other coal fired power stations.
And no consideration of them being closed be considered until assured supplies of base load electricity 24/7 is available from coal, gas or uranium powered generators. Even if this requires the coal fired generators be compulsory acquired by the relevant Government, in the National interest and to maintain the supply of base load electricity 24/7 that is essential to STOP the Grid from collapsing.
OUR PETITION TO KEEP OUR COAL FIRED POWER STATIONS RUNNING. Is educating everyone of how important coal fired power stations are to keeping the Grid from crashing.
https://www.change.org/p/blackouts-will-be-devastating-they-must-be-avoided-at-all-costs
YOUR SUPPORT FOR OUR PETITION WITH DONATIONS WILL BE REPAID WITH BASELOAD ELECTRICITY FOR THE NEXT CRITICAL FIFTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS. Be it $10, $20, $50 or $100 please make a donation and keep our petition in the public eye. AND KEEP THE BLACKOUTS AT BAY. The more signatures we get the more wins will keep coming and the coal fired power stations will be kept running. Promote the petition on Change.org and share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp or Email.
KEEP INFORMED BY DAILY MONITORING THE AEMO DATA DASHBOARD. And alert your friends to watch the AEMO dashboard, the more know what's happening the better.
Particularly at 7pm and 7am (Or a time that suits you?) watch (and record) the mix of coal, gas hydro, batteries, solar and wind generation and the prices per MWh for each State on the AEMO dashboard.
Example: Eastern States 7th January 2026 8.10pm AESDST. Batteries 11%, Biomass 0%, Black Coal 40% Brown Coal 12%, Gas 13%, Hydro 14% Diesel 0% Solar 1%, Wind 9%. 8.10pm a time when solar has almost gone for its daily 16 hours (lack of fuel), zero production period. Unreliable wind is all over the place averaging 9%, but ranging from a pathetic 4% in NSW, up to 16% in SA. With the strong possibility of wind droughts, dropping wind’s contribution to an overall 5 or 6%.
To underline the importance of our coal fired generators 7/1/26 8.10pm AESDST. In NSW coal is producing 70% Solar 1%, Wind 4%, Qld coal 59%, solar 0% wind 11% Vic Brown coal 45%, solar 1%, wind 10%. SA batteries 18%, gas 59%, solar 3%, wind 16% and Tas hydro 81%, wind 12%.
WITHOUT COAL AUSTRALIA WOULD BE BLACKED OUT.
STOP PRESS: WHAT CAN HAPPEN. South Australia 4th June 2024 9.05pm EST. Batteries 0%, Gas 97%, Diesel 3% Solar 0%, Wind 0%.
SA RENEWABLES CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA WITH BATTERIES, SOLAR AND WIND PRODUCING NO ELECTRICITY, ZERO, NOTHING
We are up to 4,561 signatures, let’s increase it by many more, everyone’s future depends on it. Continue to spread the word, to all family, friends, anyone you meet, particularly discuss it with shop and business owners. Ask the question, “How do you plan to cope when the blackouts come? The possibility is too awful to contemplate.
WE MUST KEEP THOSE COAL FIRED GENERATORS GOING, TO KEEP OUR SOCIETY FROM HAVING BLACKOUTS, POWER RATIONING AND EXHORBITENT ENERGY PRICES.