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COAL – THE CLEAN HIGH TECH ALTERNATIVE
Coal Bin by Harold Hough Feb/March 2009

In the “Age of Obama,” we can expect to hear that coal is an old technology that pollutes the air, leaves large carbon footprints, and rapes the earth. We will then be told that alternates like biomass, wind, solar energy, and geothermal will be more than enough to replace coal. Don’t be mislead.
The fact is that coal is powering the greening of America and there are no alternative energy sources with the capability or environmentally sensitive capability of coal.

As Peabody Executive Roger Walcott once noted, “If you’re a Peabody employee, I tell them, you work for an Internet company.” Coal is a critical part of the new information age and the consumers’ desire to shop at home rather than using gasoline to drive to the store. The Internet accounts for about one tenth of America’s electricity consumption. The normal PC and its peripherals use about one kilowatt of electricity and the average Internet user is online over 12 hours a week. Consequently, the electrical demand for each household computer is 1,000 kilowatts a year, once off line applications are included. And, that doesn’t include those of us who leave their computers on 24 hours a day as a phone answering and fax machine. When you multiply that by the over 200 million computers in use in the United States, you can see that America’s demand for power to run their computers is massive – more than that used by the whole country of Italy.

This demand for energy can only be met by coal, which powers over half of America’s electricity generating stations. Yet, this energy demand is actually cutting the demand for other, dirty energy sources. While ordering a book from Amazon requires burning half a pound of coal for energy, that is far less energy than that used to drive to the local bookstore in an automobile. A half a pound of coal produces 1,500 calories of energy. A trip to the bookstore, that requires only one gallon of gas, consumes 22,000 calories.
Coal not only powers the Internet, it is an important part of keeping electricity costs down. 80% of America’s lowest cost power generating units use coal for fuel. That gives America an edge in keeping high technology jobs in this country. It also means Internet providers can charge less, which means people can use it more.

DIRTY, EXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVES

Despite talk about clean, renewable alternatives, coal is still the cheapest, cleanest alternative. Biomass powered generating plants cost 50% more than a coal plant producing the same amount of energy. It also releases more carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate mater. And, since biomass requires cultivating more land, there would be fewer habitats for wildlife.

Nor is wind a solution. Although it appears to be renewable and pollution free, it has higher “up front” costs than conventional power plants and is subject to the erratic behavior of the wind. Studies by San Diego Gas and Electric showed that wind farms operate at 23% of capacity, while coal plants reach 85%. And, since there are only a few places in the United States with strong, regular winds, we would have to build high power transmission lines that cost up to $1 million a mile and are often opposed by environmentalists because they interfere with nature. And, this doesn’t even address the problem that they can chop up endangered bird species like a Cusinart.

Solar energy has the same problem as wind energy in that few places in the U.S. actually have a reliable number of sunny days to make solar energy stations efficient. That means that a solar economy also requires a high power transmission grid from sunny places like Arizona to the consumer. Solar cells also are also produced from a toxic brew of chemicals that can poison the environment.

Finally, there is geothermal, which promises much, but has been just a lot of hot air. Contrary to popular opinion, geothermal isn’t inexhaustible. Steam can only be taken out at the same speed that water enters the system. If the water table isn’t recharged, then there is no steam to pull from the ground. Since water tables are falling throughout the U.S., geothermal energy sources are problematical. And, that doesn’t consider the fact that geothermal steam is very corrosive because of high concentrations of sulfuric acid and hydrogen sulfides.

The fact is that coal is still the best high tech source of energy. Not only does it have the ability to power the energy saving Internet, it poses fewer problems than the supposedly “green” alternatives. Let’s make sure we get the story out over the next few months as the pressure to spend on green energy grows.