What new website visualizes the decline of coal's edge on the energy market?

CoalMap, a website developed by researchers from MIT, shows the location of today's coal plants accompanied by markers showing each plant's capacity and relative cost. Users can apply filters based on varying carbon prices, subsidies and varying costs of alternative energy sources to see how coal is impacted. The advantage of coal in today's market is tenuous, the researchers reported.

The website is the product of the MIT Clean Earth Hackathon held last year by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the MIT Office of Sustainability.

"It's incredible to see how fast solar and wind costs have dropped and how soon they can become competitive with even the cheapest legacy coal if historical rates of cost decline are maintained," Joel Jean, one of the project contributors, told Phys.org.