From Bloomberg: Replacing coal power plants across the United States with renewable energy projects would reduce carbon emissions and require less water.

Add to the list: It would also save money.

Nearly all existing US coal plants require more cash to operate than the cost of replacing them with new wind or solar projects, according to a report published Monday by San Francisco-based climate think tank Energy Innovation.

The finding is in line with past research by BloombergNEF that determined building new solar and wind farms is cheaper than operating existing coal or gas power plants in much of the world.

Critical to the cost advantage of renewable energy in the US is President Joe Biden’s climate legislation, which provides billions of dollars in incentives for clean energy infrastructure.

“The Inflation Reduction Act has made this local replacement and reinvestment scenario so economic and so much cheaper than coal,” said Michelle Solomon, a policy analyst at Energy Innovation and the lead author of the report. “It really creates a big opportunity to diversify the economics in coal communities.”

The law includes a 10% tax credit for so-called “energy communities,” including areas with retired coal plants, to transition to clean energy infrastructure.

The report authors calculated the costs of operating each of 210 coal plants in the United States, taking into account fuel and operations as well as future maintenance expenditures. They then compared those numbers to costs associated with installing and operating new wind and solar projects nearby. In all but one case, the renewable project required less cash.

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