https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE
https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US
(You need to set the time period to last 12 months, not sure if you can encode that into the URL)
Well, Germany uses half the electricity per capita.
Hell, even solar generation in Germany isn't anywhere as good as the US, where it can build solar parks in the south, meanwhile most of Germany has what, 6 hours of daylight during winter?
To me, it's absurd that the US has literally the best geography of any country in the world and yet isn't coal-free.
It has even a river that divides the country. It's almost as if it was hand-drawn by god. With mountainy regions, hot and cold areas, deserts and tropical areas, America you have no excuse and can do better.
But coal? Yikes. As you've said it, as gas is so cheap, perhaps use lots of gas and invest in renewables. But go coal-free.
(we deployed about 1GW/day of solar on average globally in 2023, and this is expected to rise to ~2.7GW in 2024, reaching 1TW deployed annually; the US is also now one of the largest LNG exporters in the world)