Coal Is King -- July 21, 2022

This is really quite amazing. 

I have a reader who has been predicting this ever since I started blogging: that eventually coal would "come back" despite the "green movement." 

I never knew the reader's timeline but I think we both thought in terms twenty years or so (remember: the blog is over twelve years old; fourteen years old if one goes back to the first post in 2007 -- I deleted the blog from 2007 to 2009 in a moment of insanity -- I changed the direction of the blog in 2009 and felt everything before was unnecessary). 

A digression, I apologize. I was saying.

I never knew the reader's timeline but I think we both thought in terms twenty years or so before coal made a comeback. I know I never, in a million years, expected coal to surge this soon. I was thinking maybe 2040 or thereabouts.

There are multiple reasons but I don't have time for that now.

But here's the headline, from John Kemp's column over at Reuters: global 2021 coal-fired electricity generation surges to record high. Link here. 

Global coal-fired electricity generators are producing more power than ever before in response to booming electricity demand and the surging price of gas.

The world’s coal-fired generators produced a record 10,244 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2021 surpassing the previous record of 10,098 TWh set in 2018.

Coal-fuelled generation is on course to set an even higher record in 2022 as generators in Europe and Asia minimise the use of expensive gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and U.S. and EU sanctions imposed in response.

By contrast, mine output was still fractionally below the record set between 2012 and 2014 because older and less efficient coal generators have been replaced by newer and more efficient ones needing less fuel per kilowatt.

Global coal mine production was 8,173 million tonnes in 2021 compared with 8,180-8,256 million a year between 2012 and 2014.

But mine production is also likely to set a new record this year as the surging demand for coal-fuelled generation overtakes efficiency improvements.

So much more at the linked article. 

Favorite tag: Obama kills US coal industry. 

I do not believe Greta Thunberg contributed to this article.