uneconomic

adjective

un·eco·nom·ic | \ˌən-ˌe-kə-ˈnä-mik,

-ˌē-kə-\

variants: or uneconomical \ ˌən-ˌe-kə-ˈnä-mi-kəl ,

-ˌē-kə- \

Definition of uneconomic

: not economically practicable uneconomic transportation routes also : costly, wasteful an uneconomic nuclear technology

Examples of uneconomic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Using the Act to protect coal and nuclear facilities would almost certainly be more controversial, as the link between national defense and keeping uneconomic coal generators running is not well-established. — Megan Geuss, Ars Technica, "White House reportedly exploring wartime rule to help coal, nuclear," 21 Apr. 2018 If the Energy Department acts, consumers will be saddled with as much as $11.8 billion to pay for the uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. — Don Santa, Houston Chronicle, "Commentary: Administration’s action on coal, nuclear solves a problem that doesn’t exist," 5 July 2018 And a slew of new natural gas power plants have come online in recent years that would be uneconomic too close. — Justin Worland, Time, "Is the Coming Natural Gas Boom Good for the Climate? Depends Who You Ask," 22 June 2018 Lower prices are good for consumers but bad for owners of big, uneconomic coal and nuclear plants, who rely on high prices to keep running. — David Roberts, Vox, "Wind and solar are coming. Grid managers need to get ready.," 18 May 2018 However, major grid operators have contended that resilience can be improved without keeping uneconomic coal plants online. — Megan Geuss, Ars Technica, "Perry seems in favor of emergency order to bail out coal, nuclear plants," 15 Apr. 2018 But as prices rise the country will face unprecedented competition from oil producers in the U.S. New technology — namely fracking and horizontal drilling — has opened parts of the country to oil development that have long thought to be uneconomic. — Justin Worland, Time, "Here's How Cheap Oil Is Pushing Saudi Arabia to Reform," 22 Mar. 2018 These minerals are scarce only because deposits in other parts of the world have so far been uneconomic to extract, but that may change as demand for transparently sourced minerals increases. — The Economist, "A scramble for the minerals used in renewable energy is under way," 15 Mar. 2018 Many of those projects are uneconomic and now spend their time weighing down bank balance sheets rather than contributing to growth. — Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, "China Slows Again: Hedge Your Growth Bets, But Don’t Panic," 14 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'uneconomic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.