The Coal Transition Commission (CTC) was established to develop a shared plan for addressing this challenge, as part of the broader Coal Transition Accelerator launched by France at COP28 in order to facilitate just transitions from coal to clean energy.
This report by the CTC addresses the knowledge gap that currently exists around the role of coal flexibility in coal-to-clean transitions.
The report concludes that, in some circumstances, operating coal assets in a flexible way could support a more rapid integration of renewables in the near term as alternative sources of flexibility are built out, so long as robust guardrails are in place to manage the risk of unduly prolonging coal use.
The paper also concludes that flexibility is rarely a fleet wide approach and should be seen in the context of a larger coal transition strategy.
This technical report aims to assess the role of flexible operation of specific coal plants in emerging markets.