07 January 2020

Coal has no future


The graph above shows Britain's energy sources (discussed in a thread in the dataisbeautiful subreddit).

A quick search yielded the following graph of United States' power generation sources:


How willfully ignorant or monumentally stupid does someone have to be to suggest a bright future for the coal industry?

Addendum:  Related story.

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2020 at 9:27 AM

    the insurance companies are getting out:

    https://www.courant.com/business/hc-biz-the-hartford-climate-20200102-uluw33fvufgajhpzh6qgjm4zvi-story.html The Hartford cites climate change as it limits insurance coverage of businesses with stake in coal and tar sands

    I-)

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  2. IronHorseJanuary 7, 2020 at 10:20 AM

    Well, you have to look outside the 1st world.

    China and India are only beginning their downward trend in coal consumption, and even those trends haven't solidified entirely yet. China in particular has a nasty habit of underreporting coal production and consumption. Other developing countries are far less along the road to modern energy infrastructure, and coal remains the most economical solution for them when it comes to keeping the lights on.

    Coal is certainly on a downward trend, but there is a very robust case for exporting coal that will likely keep extraction going for the next two or three decades.

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  3. SmurfswackerJanuary 7, 2020 at 8:55 PM

    But clean coal!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. DidierJanuary 8, 2020 at 7:27 AM

    Of course coal has a future: without coal no steel. Also coal is a much cheaper way to make electricity so developping countries won't shy from it. Rather developpement now than nature tomorrow.
    From an investing perspective this coal shunning makes coal plants valuable in the future because they are money starved these days, no new supply coming online for a long time.
    The climate change debate is unscientific. They push it upon us in an unscientific manner. What do you think about the arguments in this thoughtful article: https://lt3000.blogspot.com/2019/11/contrarianism-esg-investing-coal-and.html

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  5. ChrisJanuary 8, 2020 at 5:09 PM

    The coal industry itself disagrees with your opinion. Case in point:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/04/08/even-kentucky-coal-museum-going-solar/100205662/

    ReplyDelete