...can we be done with fucking coal please? I assume that's a rhetorical question. I'm happy to discuss power system stuff at length, regardless. Coal does provide some useful features that solar does not. Solar similarly provides some useful, unique features, like zero moving parts and operation and maintenance being one part time guy with a damp towel.When the Saudis are building solar farms?
Coal, as a power source, is not without utility. As a power source, however, it has externalities that, from a broad perspective, discourage its adoption. Coal, as a political force, is so fucking tired. When I read economics reports from 1965 talking about the plight of the coal miner and their dwindling employment, I know one thing: the idea of coal has long since surpassed the utility of coal.
Oh yeah, as a political thing coal is monumentally stupid, like NRA levels of stupid. It should be dead. As a power source it would be nice if it was dead along with all the other awful things civilization does. It isn't, but it's getting there.