Trump's Texas-sized coal fail

Trump touts dirty coal in his war on Obama, but markets say the answer is blowing in the wind. 

From today's "Daily on Energy" email newsletter - - free subscription, here - -  distributed by the conservative Washington Examiner:

WIND ENERGY AIMS TO OVERTAKE COAL IN TEXAS: Wind energy is expected to overtake coal in Texas after Friday's news that two large coal-fired power plants are set to close in the next year.

Two plants fade into sunset: The utility firm Luminant announced that it would close the Sandow Power Plant and the Big Brown Power Plant in early 2018. The power plants comprise 2,300 megawatts of electricity, which means 2.1 million homes in the Lone Star State will no longer be powered by coal. 

What fills the gap: That gap in electricity generation is projected to be filled by wind farms in the Texas energy grid known as ERCOT, according to an analysis issued by the University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute soon after Luminant's announcement. 

"New coal retirements announced by Luminant (Big Brown and Sandow plants) means ERCOT will soon lose significant coal generation capacity. At the same time, wind capacity is expected to increase by nearly 4,000 [megawatts] by 2018, meaning wind capacity will soon exceed coal capacity in Texas," the Energy Institute said. 

Wind’s future: "Given current capacity factors for the respective technologies, it's conceivable that energy generation from wind could possibly overtake coal in the near future," it said in a release. 

Facts and figures: The total amount of wind energy will reach 24,400 megawatts and coal shrinks to 20,370 megawatts, according to the university.