Most closures will be in the mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest,
where coal generation is concentrated.
Not exact matches
The region with the highest growth rate in
coal use in the IEA outlook period is in Southeast Asia,
where Indonesia, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Philippines among others plan to underpin their power
generation with new
coal power plants.
But in the Midwest and South,
where coal fuels the bulk of electricity
generation, a hybrid produces less CO2 than an electric car.
A further issue of nuance is that over half of Australia's
coal exports is for steelmaking (coking
coal)
where substitution options are limited, as opposed to steaming
coal for power
generation.
However, it cited wind power as a threat to nuclear and
coal generation, particularly in the Midwest,
where several wind projects are either in service or planned over the next few years.
In OECD countries, and especially in many emerging economies,
where coal - fired power
generation is set to expand in the near future, new - build
coal ‑ fired power units should aim for best available efficiencies (currently, through application of supercritical or ultra-supercritical technologies),
where feasible, and be designed in view of potential future CCS retrofits, if they are not equipped initially with CCS.
In the US,
where power
generation from
coal has fallen by 38 % in volume since 2007, the availability of cheaper natural gas brought about by the boom in shale gas production has caused significant switching from
coal to natural gas in the power sector.
States
where electricity
generation still comes mostly from
coal include Kentucky, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
4)
Coal, from the USA perspective, is a readily available low cost source of energy, especially well suited for large power
generation units,
where flue gas can be cleaned up efficiently, avoiding real pollution.
Cambridge, Mass., January 16, 2018 — Wood is increasingly being used to replace
coal as a source of electricity
generation in many regions such as the European Union,
where policymakers have declared it «carbon neutral.»
«It's not like power supply of the past
where you had a bunch of nuclear power plants, a couple
coal plants and some gas - fired
generation with the odd renewable asset thrown in, and then a jumbled mix of grey and green power being sold at the consumer end,» says Uli Suedhoff, a director at GE Renewable Energy in Europe.
-- expand drilling / fracking to extract as much domestic energy as possible, — use clean natural gas,
where possible, to replace dirtier
coal and for heavy transportation vehicles; — support basic research efforts aimed at finding economically viable green energy technologies; — at the same time, install new nuclear power
generation capacity in place of new
coal plants, wherever this makes economic sense.
Elsewhere, however,
coal use has soared, particularly in Europe,
where its share of the power
generation mix increased at the expense of gas.
In total, the power company has about 8.3 GW of
coal, oil and gas - fired resources currently available, so this would mean a 44 % reduction in its fossil capacity, and a fleet
where wind and solar represent a majority of capacity, if not necessarily
generation.
Where locally produced sustainable energy might not be available, the power required for the drying of
coal could be taken from the grid when electricity is abundant - that is, when sustainable electricity
generation methods are puting more electricity into the grid than is being consumed.
While the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expected 2013 emissions to inch up — mostly due to increased
coal use in electrical
generation — the projected level still would be more than 10 percent below
where emissions were in 2005.
They include those increasing
coal taxes in India (and Korea,
where the levy increased to US$ 21 / t in 2015 from US$ 15 / t in 2014); moves being made to a national emissions - trading scheme like those being undertaken in China and Korea» tightening emissions requirements on
coal - fired power
generation in the U.S. and India; greater regulation of mine waste disposal ponds in Brazil and the U.S; and greater scrutiny of
coal mine rehabilitation subsidies and
coal company leasing schemes in the U.S.
Vattenfall, Sweden's state - owned power utility has embraced the technology and has opened a pilot plant in Germany,
where it runs a number of
coal - fired plants - 64 percent of its
generation is from brown
coal in Germany, just one percent from renewables (and it has zero
coal - fired plants in Sweden).
«USEDA» (formerly know as the US Environmental Protection Agency) is proposing revisions to decades - old air quality regulations that will make it easier for
coal - fired
generation plants to obtain construction and operating permits for sites
where air
Plus, the need for more
coal - fired or nuclear
generation (see below for details) will have impacts far outside the immediate areas
where oil shale projects are underway; and,
Which makes unfortunate sense when you look at
where the most development of renewable energy in the US has occurred — largely in places which already had low to no
coal - fired
generation and not in those states which are already well above the national average for
coal usage.
These new economic opportunities are significant in a region
where jobs in the
coal industry — once the dominant employer — have declined by almost 90 percent in two
generations.
The takeaway from this chart is that according to EIA, although natural gas might be the least expensive source of electricity
generation if you are building new plants,
where coal plants are already built and
where hydroelectric dams exist,
coal and hydroelectric power is the cheapest.
REITs with properties in areas
where coal still plays a large role in energy
generation had a relatively high footprint, van den Dries said.