Coal is probably cheaper. Nuclear is very capital intensive, costs are usually more than estimated. Maintenance also regularly goes over budget and schedule.
Solar is increasingly cost-competitive. In my city there is at least one per block for the parking payment stations - it's cheaper than connecting them to the grid, even in the middle of the city.
As the costs of solar go down and we know we can close down plants, the political focus will shift to coal. I can't wait.
In the US, utilities are switching over from coal to natural gas for electricity, on account of advances in fracking which make gas dirt cheap. (Some trucking firms are also trying to switch to LNG fuel, as diesel remains expensive). Combined with this anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe, this places the US in the hilariously ironic position of reducing carbon dioxide emissions more than Europe even though they never bothered to make that an explicit priority.
The analysis in that Economist opinion piece is rather poor, and reads more like an industry booster piece than a review of current knowledge about the process and impacts of fracking.
A study was released late last year by the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) [1] which found that a switch to natural gas would increase warming over the next few decades, as outlined in NCAR's report [2].
It acknowledges something the shale gas industry studiously avoids in calculating figures for its green credentials pitches: fugitive emissions. A significant amount of methane leakage occurs in the fracking process and piping of gases.
When you add in the input-intensive activity of multiple well constructions, fracking, pipeline construction, and fugitive emissions the 'green' story of shale gas doesn't add up.
The dismissal of fracking-triggered earthquakes is also odd, considering a US company (Cuadrilla) was forced to stop fracking in the UK after two seismic events occurred [3], a recent report by the UK was focused on mitigating fracking-related seismic events [4], and Cuadrilla released a report [5] which concluded "it is highly probable" hydraulic fracking triggered a number of tremors.
When you factor in the unavoidable well contamination of underground aquifers (as pressure differences inevitably lead to aquifer water filling the fracked area over time) the shale gas 'bonanza' seems anything but.
As I've stated before; solar and windpower are inadequate to provide for the power requirements of the western world. Oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear will be required if we want to maintain our current standard of living, nevermind the requirements imposed by developing countries.
Now you may be fine with cutting your energy requirements in half; bully for you. But don't be surprised if this isn't a popular idea for the rest of the world.
Solar and windpower are currently inadequate, but that doesn't always have to be the case, especially if we can develop grid-scale liquid metal batteries like this:
Here's a link I've posted before displaying the current amount of energy produced by the various sources. The amount of land that we'd have to devote to solar to make a meaningful contribution would be unsustainable.
I'm not sure, I've often seen maps with areas required to power the world with solar* and while they are big, they aren't impossible, especially if done smartly (big solar farms in deserts connected via HCDC transmission lines, but also solar PV and solar water heaters on rooftops close to users).
Keep in mind that there are different types of coal, and choice normally depends on what is locally available / cheapest in volume. IIRC there's a lot of dirty lignite (Braunkohle) in Germany.
What exactly are you talking about here? The federal government is supplied by CDU (conservatives) and FDP (neo-liberals), and they do have the majority in parliament (see http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/plenum/bilder/sitzverteilu...). However, the FDP lost a lot of votes in recent state elections (but has somewhat recovered during the last one).
Solar is increasingly cost-competitive. In my city there is at least one per block for the parking payment stations - it's cheaper than connecting them to the grid, even in the middle of the city.
As the costs of solar go down and we know we can close down plants, the political focus will shift to coal. I can't wait.