The technology may be there, but how much energy does it take...

The technology may be there, but how much energy does it take and is there an energy payback? What about the related emissions and pollution? Coal is slowly becoming uneconomic. Even worse for brown coal. The only reason we use brown coal in Victoria is because the La Trobe Valley power stations are paid for and the marginal cost of generation with brown coal on their doorstep is very cheap. A new brown coal fired power station in the same location would probably be uneconomic. Unfortunately we will be compensating these power stations for the price on carbon - something I do not agree with and I don't want to see any of my taxes going there, but not much I can do about that.

https://theconversation.edu.au/king-coal-dethroned-6977