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China Burns 18 Percent More Thermal Coal in Jan-June
Michele Batchelor, Bloombert
China, the world’s largest thermal coal producer and consumer, increased consumption of the fuel by 18 percent in the first half of the year.
The country burned 590.8 million metric tons of coal in the six months ended June 30, the China Electricity Council said in a statement on the Chinese government’s Web site.
“The national power supply and demand remained basically stable with most parts of the country reporting fewer power shortages,” the China Electricity Council said. “With an installed capacity of 90 million kilowatts in 2007, most regions will see power surpluses after the summer.”
China’s economy expanded 11.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace of growth in 12 years, boosting crude oil and coal imports as demand from electronics factories and carmakers soared.
(25 July 2007)
Peabody to pick plant state soon
Chuck Stinnett, AP and Gleaner staff
Peabody Energy Corp. expects within three months to choose between Kentucky, Indiana or Illinois for a proposed plant that would convert coal into synthetic natural gas, a spokeswoman indicated Monday.
…The coal gasification project is one of two coal conversion projects that Peabody is considering locating in Kentucky.
The coal giant already has selected western Kentucky — the Sturgis area, according to sources outside the company — for a separate $3 billion project that would convert coal into liquid fuels such as diesel. No other states are under consideration for that project, Sutton confirmed.
But Kentucky is still competing for the coal gasification plant, which would convert coal into pipeline-quality substitute natural gas.
The complex would cost billions of dollars to construct and create “hundreds of jobs,” Sutton said.
The plant would consume more than 3.5 million tons of Midwestern coal per year. The project would be a mine-mouth facility, located beside a new or existing mine where Peabody has significant coal reserves.
Peabody controls 4 billion tons of reserve in the Midwest, Sutton said.
The project, which Peabody said would be the largest coal gasification project in the United States, would employ the ConocoPhillips E-Gas technology.
(24 July 2007)
Contributor Mitch writes:
Conoco Phillips and Peabody Coal are betting billions that the price of oil will never fall again. Looks like a smoking gun these two companies are aware of peak oil.
Dogging Big Coal
Jenny Yuen, NOW magazine
On any given Tuesday evening, it’s hard not to notice the brightly painted signs reading, “Stop cancer” and “Phase out coal-fired plants Canada-wide” at the corner of University and College — especially at the height of smog-creating rush-hour traffic.
Since Earth Day, Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance (PSEA), a non-profit of academics and students, has been holding weekly vigils on the steps of Ontario Power Generation’s concave glass tower to remind passersby that clean air is not a luxury.
PSEA is calling on Premier McGuinty to keep his promise to close all of Ontario’s coal-fired plants. The group is also pushing for both Canada-wide and global phase-outs of coal.
It’s difficult to tell whether the message is being taken seriously or just pissing some people off. Posters put up by the group in front of Mount Sinai Hospital and at the street corners have all been ripped down.
I’ve joined the group to hand out leaflets about thousands of Canadians dying prematurely every year from the effects of smog. No sooner do I start wondering whether leafleting makes a difference than two OPG security guards interrupt us, demanding that PSEA pack up its banners. The group’s been here four months, but it’s the first time this has happened.
(19-25 July 2007)
Related: It’s Tuesday – time to protect the planet (The Star):
Ivona Vujica calls herself an “eco-refugee.”
A survivor of the Bosnian civil war of the early 1990s, Vujica stands near the busy intersection of University and College Ave. on Tuesday morning. The Ontario Power Generation building, steps away from Queen’s Park, serves as the backdrop for Vujica’s weekly organized protest.
“Living through the war was really hard. It’s a shocking experience when you (live) without energy, without water, without food,” Vujica, 30, says. “This is what can happen to people if you don’t care about the planet.”
Coal reserves and resources – a gentle cough
Heading Out, The Oil Drum
I have written recently about some of the reasons that coal reserves, as currently understood, might not be quite as large, at present, as they are assumed to be.
However, while I could continue on that tack for some additional time, it is perhaps time to give a gentle cough and suggest that there is perhaps a little terminologically inexact thinking in some of the discussions on the actual size of reserves, relative to the overall resource and that there is another viewpoint that should be considered in this debate. Particularly this relates to how much is left and how long it will last.
Firstly it should be recognized that a number of studies of coal reserves have put caveats on their numbers along the lines of “under current operating and economic conditions.” And so let me first put back up the table I posted in my last post, relating to the coal reserves of the UK back in 1952. ..
(24 Jul 2007)
