Coal Returns from the Dead to Power the World as Renewables Fall Short

First of all I support a transition to green however in a balanced transition over several decades. Just like Germany proposed to the UN last year. Not some radical movement led by the likes of Greta and that Congress woman pom pom queen. So what happened here? Ever notice that most politicians are those who cannot obtain gainful employment in the private sector end up in a government job. Then they form into clusters of like minded hives that in today's world destroy everything built in the past. Hence all those alternate views. So AOC why aren't you pushing for Hydrogen electric generation plants to replace our coal plants here in the USA? Actually they are building one in Saudi Arabia. Look up Air Product & Chemicals. I used to be a Engineer in their Cryogenics department back in the day.

Coal returns from the dead to power the world as renewables fall short

Transitioning to green energy will take time. Meanwhile, governments bring back the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

Coal was supposed to be headed to the dust bin of history as the world increasingly embraces renewable energy. After all, many countries were shutting down these sooty, air-choking power plants. Mines closed, coal companies went bankrupt, and utilities started to replace coal-fired electricity generation with natural gas or wind and solar energy. But it turns out that weaning the world off fossil fuels, particularly the dirtiest fuel of them all, isn’t going to be easy or quick, as coal’s price and demand have been revived this year. Transitions take time. “From our point of view, the energy transition was always a multi-decade story,” said Biff Ourso, senior managing director, Nuveen Real Assets. “And there’s invariably going to be periods of spikes in demand, or supply/demand imbalances that was going to cause a resurgence in carbon-based generation sources.” Coal is likely to stick around as countries rely on it to ensure the lights stay on and the economy hums along. Coal’s resurgence also shines a light on the need for improved battery storage for renewables if the world is going to decarbonize.

Just as today, people still use iphones and laptops regardless excusing themselves as being more Effective for change with the device, fighting fire with fire as it were;

Dirty power gens will be essential for the elites, because they will be more effective with it, fighting fire with fire as it were.

a reply to: Waterglass

Government mandates don't magically transform the world like intended.
Renewable energy is not ready or capable of replacing fossil fuels just because of an arbitrary date set by politicians.

I moved into a old Victorian that has Coal burning Fireplaces Coal for the win !!!

Much more efficient then wood .

a reply to: Waterglass

I think everyone would be tickled pink with an alternative energy source with no emissions. But we just aren't there yet. We don't have that magical unicorn piss to run our engines off of. So until we get that magic juice, we will have to do with what we have.

It's hard to understand how that isn't just the way things are. But as with Cali, wanting to ban internal combustion engines in 2035, somehow the really stupid people got elected.
www.theverge.com...

Folks in Cali had better start working on those leg muscles now, riding your schwinn to work on the I5 is in your future.

We do not yet have the technology to abandon fossil fuels.
All these “feelz good man” so-called green energy producing jokes that are being tried are at best, half measures.
One day mankind will have the tech ability to produce unlimited clean and FREE electricity but not any time soon I’m sorry to say. Not likely to happen during my lifetime that’s for sure……
There’s way too much money being made off fossil fuels and money is what drives everything.
IMO whoever it was that invented the first money should have a roll of silver dollars stuck up their azz every morning……

a reply to: Waterglass

Carbon is NOT the problem and never was (it's a great scam however for those that like to SELL carbon points and make themselves the carbon point tycoon's of the future), burning coal is just putting atmospheric gas that used to actually be there back up there and it get's absorbed and feed's plant growth.

The problem is CFC's which are still up there and an Ozone layer that is still not fixed, too much UV getting through and the damage that does to plants and animal's.

People are scared of global warming and think that stupid movies like Water World are real but in fact land is always being pushed upward and land is always sinking.

Also if we suddenly all vanished the world will continue to heat up, the permafrost is releasing it's store of methane and volcanic activity put's out more CO2 than all human activity combined anyway.

Still it does mean Miners lung is back, back until maybe as late as the 1960's in the UK everyone used to have a coal fire place and kid's would go out and get covered in soot just playing outdoors.

Coal is dirty in that sense of the word but it is cleaner than the lunatic fringe want us to believe, it also is far safer than the likes of Nuclear power and far cheaper than depending on foreign country's for gas supplies which have to pass through multiple country's before reaching a nation that uses it.

But Coal is NOT always Coal, in the UK and Germany though we have almost stopped using it we have some of the very finest coal in the world, low sulphur clean burning coal that is hundreds of millions of years old but in south America and China and many parts of the middle east the coal they are digging up or leaving to burn in the ground is young, nasty and sulphur rich.

The problem with Sulphur in the air is not global warming but acid rain.

The other thing these lunatic fringe keep moaning about is claiming WE humans are solely responsible for climate change which is utter - unmentionable word - when in fact it is part of natural climate change during the Quaternary Glaciation a period now just a few millions years old - about four and a half to five - in which we are in an actual global ice age, go back five or six million years ago and life was teeming on the planet, there were NO polar ice cap's and the Sahara was a fertile green forest but NO (Exaggeration intended) humans are killing everything (Well in fact the Chinese are EATING everything but that is another story) when in fact we are not, corporations on the other hand can be accused of doing harm but not people and not population size either (And China remember is like a giant corporation if you look at it right, it's not the number of there people it is how they run roughshod over everything and everyone else to suit themselves like the fat kid stealing all the cake at the party).

Another thing to remember is the more the sea's contain the heavier they are, the more they depress the ocean basin's and the more this pushes the underlying softer semi liquid mantle under the continents which in turn can lead to continents rising, land will not vanish except in the short term and in fact it will equalize back out as well as areas now too cold to habitate becoming habitable and areas too cold to grow food becoming more arable.


that said I do not envy those that work underground, dirty, dangerous and bad for your health.

a reply to: Waterglass

- Do you know how many poor animals were killed to sew this fur coat?
- Do you know how many rich animals I had to sleep with to get it?

From the film "Substitution", 1991

a reply to: Waterglass

oilprice.com...

Mining companies are getting creative in hiring, said Rich Nolan, CEO of the National Mining Association trade group.

Along with higher pay, some firms offer benefits like daycare. "Everyone is scraping for employees," Nolan said. "They're using every trick in the book to attract qualified workers."

Some mining firms are desperate enough that they are offering $100k per year for new talent.

Miners might not meet the surge in demand due to years of decommissioning mines to reduce carbon emissions and transition the economy from fossil fuels to green energy.A sustainable energy transition will likely take decades, not years:

a reply to: Waterglass

First of all I support a transition to green however in a balanced transition over several decades. Just like Germany proposed to the UN last year.

100%
It’s not so much our cars, or straws, it’s the nonstop cargo ships! Maybe these supply chain shortages are a blessing in disguise and we need to pull that plug permanently!

BTW, I love straws, those adult sippy cups are ridiculous.

70 percent of our electricity is produced by boiling of water. This boiling of water is accomplished by burning coal, oil, natural gas or with nuclear reactors.

the most efficient and stable way to replace this would be with geothermal. It would also be the quickest based on the lead time for building nuclear reactors.

a reply to: sraven

You think geothermal is safe? Have a look at this.

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
a reply to: sraven

You think geothermal is safe? Have a look at this.

I did not say it was safe. I said it was efficient, stable, and quick.
And your article does not describe an unsafe situation if you consider loss of life. Buildings cracked and needed repair.
There was no radiation. No chemicals released. No carbon pollution.
A little bondo and some duck tape and it'll be good as new.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Nah. Put faith in businessmen. Go to Hellenic Shipping dot com. Its free. Many stories about ship builders will be going to hydrogen powered ships. As in liquefied hydrogen.

I a a former Air Products & Chemicals guy. I worked in Cryogenics manufacturing as a Engineer and Supervisor. Back in 1990 we already had a working hydrogen powered car prototype. Only issue then was couldn't get the darn thing to idle smooth. That's since been worked out along with safety as in Hydrogen Bomb stuff! They already have hydrogen train in Europe.

Check this out. Make merica great again!

Air Products Press Release

We Need all the coal power to chardge the lithium rechargeable batteries.
especially for the tesla cars!

a reply to: buddha

Sorry but your either not up the curve on Lithium along with the all in green policies to mine it and produce those Lithium batteries. TELSA and Bill Gates are championing same.

The old school ways of fracking it to the surface or solar evaporation in USA are being put out to pasture.

a reply to: Waterglass

Greta thunberg , ugh. all she does is Blah blah blah and never has any solutions.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Just wait till blackouts happen during the summer and winters and people with EVs arent able to fuel up their EVs. Because its electricity.

I liked the security when we had two big coal fired power plants around here, in the winter when it is necessary to have electricity to power the houses and especially the furnaces of the house, there was more security in having a winters coal on site at the power plants. They tore down the coal plants now, we are at more risk of problems here now.