The other thing about combined cycle plants is they are cheap. A big worry for anyone building a power plant is the long term economics, especially capital costs. Obviously you want the plant to run profitably long enough to pay off the bonds.<p>For Combined cycle low capital costs means the financial risk involved is much lower. Much more likely it&#x27;ll pay off the capital costs. After that if the economics get dodgy it can be run intermittently or mothballed. IE, the utility isn&#x27;t stuck paying off bonds on a plant that is shut down.<p>Flip side is coal fired plants have higher capital costs, longer payback and high financial risk. If carbon taxes make your plant uneconomic to run before the capital costs are paid off, the owners take a bath. (Nuclear and solar plants have the same issues, very high initial capital costs)