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An inconvenient truth about coal

IT MIGHT annoy former US Vice President Al Gore, and a few of his environmentalist friends, but <i>Hogsback</i> is delighted to see a few “inconvenient truths” are being told about coal.

Staff Reporter

Rather than being Public Enemy No 1, with a limited future as the world’s primary source of energy, coal is carving out a bigger share of the market as power-station operators learn how to tame its emissions.

Most Asian countries, a group that represents the engine-room of global growth, are increasing their investment in coal-fired power, not decreasing it as the anti-coal lobby has been claiming.

Gore, who famously attacked the fossil fuel industry with his sadly misleading movie An Inconvenient Truth, might even find it useful to make a sequel.

A starting point could be the facts contained in a report into clean coal written by an arm of the International Energy Agency with a suggested title for the second movie being: An Inconvenient Truth About The Original Inconvenient Truth.

Obviously the second film will never be made because it would cut the ground out from under the first, and it would be awfully hard for people with inflexible opinions to adjust to the data contained in the IEA’s report written by staff at its Clean Coal Centre for the Minerals Council of Australia.

The study itself focused on the increasing use of high-efficiency, low-emission technology that substantially reduces carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power stations.

In most cases HELE power stations emit between 20%-and-25% less CO2 than existing conventional power stations, and up to 40% less than older power stations.

Hard-line anti-coal campaigners will not be impressed by reductions of that order because they want all CO2 removed, and for the world to march directly into an era of renewable power generation via alternatives such as solar and wind – whatever the cost and whatever pain is caused to the global economy.

True believers in Gore’s first movie will never accept that it is not necessary to make a dramatic change, such as the total abandonment of coal, to achieve a result that delivers a cleaner environment and continued economic growth.

In a way what the IEA clean coal report reveals is that coal can be used safely, in the same way natural gas is being used, to deliver the best result for the environment and the economy.

According to the Clean Coal Centre the rapidly-evolving HELE technology is being adopted across Asia with 670 generation units already operating in south and east Asia.

“Moreover, there are an additional 1066 now under construction or planned, which is the equivalent of 24-times Australia’s current coal-fired generation,” the IEA report said.

“This is the fastest expansion and modernisation of coal-fired generation in history.”

In other words, what the anti-coal lobby has been saying about coal facing an uncertain future of falling demand is exposed for the utter rubbish it has always been.

Rather than wanting less coal the fast-growing economies of Asia want more coal, and they want to sort of high-grade coal mined in Australia because it performs best in HELE power stations.

The IEA report, which can be found here, goes on to say that it was no longer a choice between having access to affordable base-load energy and the need to mitigate emissions: “we can have both”

“In the 10 Asian countries studied, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, an estimated 1.1 billion tonnes of CO2 abatement annually will result from the planned deployment of HELE rather than older typical sub-critical technology,” the IEA report stated.

“What’s more if the most advanced ultra-subcritical technology was applied across the board, the savings would be in the order of 2 billion tonnes, equivalent to India’s annual emissions.

“This would be 53 times more effective than Europe’s emissions trading scheme.”

The IEA report has cut the ground out from the anti-coal arguments by introducing a factual dimension that is difficult for a reasonable person to reject.

The populist view, which was launched by Gore’s movie, avoids mentioning the fact that coal-powered generation is not just lowering the level of emissions it is a growing industry that really is powering Asia.

As MCA head of coal Greg Evans wrote in an article in International Coal News earlier this week: “An energy transformation is underway in Asia, and it is occurring without fanfare”

That transformation is the switch to a new era of coal technologies, known as supercritical and ultra-supercritical, which represent one of the most important developments in global energy – and, for some people, that really is an inconvenient truth.

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