this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the western region of North Rhine Westphalia.

I thought renewables were cheaper than coal. How is this possible?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought renewables were cheaper than coal. How is this possible?

The value is simply more densely packed in the coal under the wind farm than in the surface area of the wind farm.

[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Expanding on this: OP seems to be conflating wind power being cheaper than coal power, with... What? A wind farm being more profitable per unit area than a coal mine?