Wind, Solar, & Natural Gas Up In Europe — Coal & Nuclear Down

[FBaggins]

1. Pretty deceptive

Why look at all of europe when most of the continent has made little-no change in nuclear?

Coal capacity had been falling for years. How can you correctly point out "such power plants taking a long time to permit, build, and connect to the grid" and then pretend that capacity would increase in barely two years?

One wonders why the author would ignore actual changes in coal consumption over the last couple years.

Nah. There's no need to wonder.

Europe consuming more coal
JAENSCHWALDE, Germany — Green-friendly Europe has a dirty secret: It is burning a lot more coal.

Europe’s use of the fossil fuel spiked last year after a long decline, powered by a surge of cheap U.S. coal on global markets and by the unintended consequences of ambitious climate policies that capped emissions and reduced reliance on nuclear energy.

The new dependence on one of the dirtiest fuels shows just how challenging it is to maintain the momentum needed to go green, analysts and officials say, and demonstrates the far-reaching effects of America’s natural gas boom.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-07/world/36973885_1_coal-exports-power-plants-emissions

Although many thought that the EU’s campaign against climate change might affect Europe’s use of coal. This has not been the case. The EU has failed to set a steep enough price on carbon-emission credits to dissuade utilities from burning coal. Rather than hinder coal’s progress, European coal use grew in both 2011 and 2012.http://www.energyglobal.com/news/coal/articles/Global_outlook_for_coal_industry_202.aspx