Coal Power
Facts and Figures
- Coal power produced 49.7% of the U.S. electricity supply in 2005 (Energy Information Administration);
- A plant brought online in 2015, using today's technology without carbon capture and sequestration, is expected to produce power for about 5.31 cents per kilowatt hour (Energy Information Administration);
- The U.S. has demonstrated coal reserves of approximately 496 billion tons of coal (more than any other country in the world), half of which is mineable with existing technologies (Energy Information Administration);
- Consumption of coal worldwide is expected to increase 71% between 2004 and 2030, driven by developing countries that use coal to generate about 75% of their power (International Energy Agency). China, for example, constructs a new coal plant on an average on one-plant-per-week;
- The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that coal-to-liquids technologies with carbon capture and storage would result in a 4% increase in greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum, and a 119% increase if the carbon is NOT captured and stored.
Cost of Increased Use 1
Coal is abundant in the U.S.
Environmental Impact10
The environmental "price" of burning coal (the amount of emissions compared to the energy obtained) is the highest of all fossil fuels.
National Security 1
Large reserves of coal are available domestically, creating no national security issues.
Implementation 1
Coal infrastructure and technologies are well established and scalable in the near term.
Political Toxicity 8
As global warming has been pushed to the forefront, coal has become unpopular politically.
Pros of Use
- Coal is readily available in the U.S., with over 250 years of reserves available at current consumption rates (Energy Information Administration);
- The price of coal is relatively cheap and fairly stable;
- The technology for burning coal to generate electricity is well known, and building coal power plants is one of the least capital intensive ways to provide energy on a per kilowatt hour basis;
- Coal to liquid technologies offer a domestically produced source of transportation fuels.
Cons of Use
- Coal and coal to liquid resources are environmentally unfriendly without carbon sequestration, which has to be implemented on a commercial scale;
- Coal fired power plants must constantly produce power, as the technology does not allow for shut downs during periods in the day or year that exhibit low electricity demand.
Barriers to Future Use
- The environmental consequences of coal combustion are troublesome;
- Cleaner burning coal and carbon sequestration technologies are expensive, not well established, or both.
Incentives/Technology Breakthroughs Needed
- Further research on methods to burn coal more cleanly (such as IGCC) is needed in order to decrease emissions;
- More research needs to be done to determine the feasibility of carbon sequestration, as well as identify geologic structures in the U.S. where sequestration would take place;
- At the present time, utility companies have no incentive to sequester carbon or install cleaner burning coal equipment.
Most Important Fact
At this point, coal is an environmentally dirty technology, driving 51% of electricity production yet contributing to 81% of carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production (Energy Information Administration).
Bottom Line
Because coal is abundant in the U.S., relatively easy and inexpensive to extract, and not laden with foreign policy and national security issues, it will no doubt be an important part of a future energy portfolio for the U.S. However, there is justifiably strong public support for ensuring that the environmental effects of coal use are minimized, creating the need for cleaner burning coal technologies as well as carbon sequestration.
