Furthermore those plants will be more efficient, releasing less CO2 per unit electricity produced than are the ones they are replacing.

I seem to recall that Germany is importing more hard coal and burning less of their domestic soft coal as one more way to reduce the problem of using coal.

Germany has to deal with the political reality that their source for natural gas is Russia. They cannot afford to become too dependent on Russia so in the short term they will need to use some coal. I think any thinking person would agree that Germany has chosen a reasonable path to getting their nuclear plants shut down and their CO2 levels cut at the same time.

We should all be doing as well as the Germans.

Where is the link to solar power brings down electricity price?

Yes, it is possible that in a few isolated cases the grid won’t be ready for a large influx of renewable input and that will cause some difficulties for the grid managers. But there is no reason for those difficulties to be wide-spread or long-lasting.

By now all grid managers should be aware that the transition is coming and should have developed plans for how to deal with changes.

Getting some rapid cycling gas turbines/CCNG plants on line and/or bringing more storage can eliminate the need to use any coal at all.

Wind and solar are driving down the cost of electricity in parts of the world. That is where we are headed – toward a renewable grid on which electricity is cheaper. We’ll get through the growing pains. In a few incidences grid managers will drop the ball and incur some short term financial hits. They will either learn quickly or be replaced by smarter people.