World demand could propel coal to the planet’s number one energy source by 2017, surpassing oil
By Nicolas
Loris
An
abundant, affordable energy resource, coal provides 30 percent of the world’s
energy, 41 percent of the world’s electricity generation and factors into 70
percent of the world’s steel production.[1] While coal is by no means the only source of energy developed across
the globe, it is a critical resource to driving economic growth all over the
world and will continue to be so well into the future.
As the
U.S. federal government is promulgating and applying regulations to
significantly reduce the use of coal, the rest of the world’s use could propel
coal to the planet’s number one energy source by 2017, surpassing oil.[2] The purpose of this paper is not to promote one source of energy over
another—markets should drive energy production and consumption. Instead, this
paper reviews coal use in other parts of the world to highlight how vital it is
to current and future economic growth and improved standards of living.
China and India
Both coal
production and coal use are occurring at rapid rates in two of the world’s
largest and fastest growing economies. China has gone from producing 13.6
percent of the world’s coal in 1973 to 45.3 percent in 2012.[3] India is now the world’s third-largest producer of coal and is
projected to surpass the United States to become the second-largest in the next
five years.
China and
India are first and third, respectively, in terms of top coal importing
countries as well, with Japan at number two.[4] And there are no plans to curtail the use of coal in China or India:
Of the 1,200 proposals for coal-fired power plants worldwide, China and India account
for 818 of them.
Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia
Although
India and China account for much of Asia’s current and future coal use, other
regions of Asia use large amounts of coal and have plans to use more in the
future. There are plans to build 95 more plants, with most of them being built
in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Vietnam is
cutting back on exports to meet its own domestic energy needs and has plans to
increase coal-fired generation fivefold by 2020.[5] Although coal use has declined in recent years in Indonesia
(providing 22 percent of total energy consumption), coal production more than
quadrupled from 2001 to 2011.[6] Indonesia reformed its laws to increase transparency and encourage
more foreign investment, and the country is now the world’s fourth-largest coal
producer and the top exporter.[7]
Europe
Europe’s
push to transition to renewable energy sources has been very public, but its
reliance on coal receives less attention. There are plans to build 69
coal-fired power plants in Europe as well as another 47 in Turkey and 48 in
Russia.[8]
As a
result of the current and upcoming regulations impacting the coal industry and
abundantly cheap natural gas, the U.S. is shipping more of its coal to Europe.
The decommissioning of nuclear plants in Germany, Europe’s lag behind the U.S.
in exploiting its shale plays, and the scaling back of renewable energy
subsidies are all playing a part in Europe’s increased coal use.[9] European coal mining is also increasing because of burgeoning Asian
markets.
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