Coal isn’t disappearing. Its use globally hit a record last year. Since the turn of the century, coal demand has doubled.
Syd Peng
The world needs a new political discourse on coal. This is not a fuel that is going to be phased out or a technology left behind. It's important for energy security and affordability.
The idea that the West would lead the developing world away from coal is misguided. Europe’s attempted dash to renewable power has left it energy insecure and home to high electricity prices. While Europe struggles with deindustrialization, Asia is leaning on coal to tackle energy poverty and industrialize. Nowhere is that truer than in China.
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While many countries are planning coal power projects, China is the elephant in the room. China produces and uses more coal than the rest of the world combined.
Despite pressure to halt its coal use, China isn’t replacing or closing its existing coal capacity. China is building more coal capacity. China’s coal fleet is multiple times the size of the United States.
India, too, is leaning on coal to drive its economy and its effort to bring energy to millions without it. India’s annual coal demand is far more than the United States’.
Those who disparage the use of coal ignore the enormous demand for electricity from the 800 million people, mainly in Asia and Africa, who live in the dark and suffer from chronic malnutrition. Much of the world’s population has no access to sanitary toilets. Electricity-driven economic development can solve these problems. Access to electricity reduces infant mortality, improves sanitation, extends life expectancy and fosters educational opportunities.
Coal remains the key answer to persistent energy poverty.
Those who tend to look down their noses at coal forget that coal plants continue to play a critical role in the United States, underpinning a diverse and balanced energy mix to meet growing demand for electricity from data centers, electric cars and heat pumps.
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and the growth of data centers are projected to dramatically increase U.S. electricity demand. With demand skyrocketing, and immense and persistent challenges facing additions of new baseload power generation, the power plants already connected to the grid will be critical. The existing coal fleet, with generating capacity to spare, may well be the lynchpin to allowing the United States to win the AI race -- a race China is running on coal.
Coal is here to stay. It’s far past time we plan for it. Along with making far better use of our existing coal fleet, we must also pioneer advanced coal technology.
More efficient, flexible and lower-emission coal plants are the future. We should be modeling and building them here. With U.S. electricity demand soaring, we’re going to need an all-of-above approach to affordably and reliably. With the United States as the home of large coal reserves, it would be energy policy malpractice not to make advanced coal technology a centerpiece of the effort.
Peng is a professor emeritus in mining engineering at West Virginia University. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
