Coal news and updates

With the COP21 climate change treaty coming into force on November 5, stories about India’s rapidly declining air quality – New Delhi’s air pollution reached a mind-numbing, record-breaking 999 micrograms per cubic meter (40 times the safe limit) on October 31 – can only persuade decision-makers that the current status quo is untenable. Indeed, with the data on carbon emissions clearly showing that the earth is getting warmer, that weather patterns are becoming ever more unpredictable, and that societies are sicker from mounting pollution-related complications, the world’s transition to clean sources of energy simply can’t wait any longer.

 

There is, however, a greater truth, a truth not ordained by facts, but by the technological challenges associated with reducing CO2 emissions to the levels mandated by the COP21. While there is a consensus that renewables should occupy a larger slice of the global energy mix, emerging countries remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels, especially on coal. Despite an encouraging report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that the capacity production of renewables has surpassed that of coal for the first time, the agency also forecast a 33 percent increase in the use of coal by 2040.

 

When it comes to renewables, the capacity to produce power does not relate to actual production, since, for example, the sun does not always shine, nor does the wind always blow. This is what’s known as the problem of intermittency in energy policy parlance. Germany, for instance, provides the best example of what happens when traditional energy production means are drastically replaced with renewables. The Energiewende program of retiring the country’s nuclear reactors by 2022 and replacing them with green technology is undoubtedly the most ambitious such experiment in the world.

Source: TheDiplomat.com