Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Can somebody educate me on why there is so much dislike for coal? We have plenty of it and I thought it was much cleaner today then ever before?
No dislike for coal here in any way, shape or form, but consider the following.
US has 340,000MW of coal (some of the plants are nearly 100 years old, although the median looks more like mid 50s through early 80s). Assuming that they run at an average 75% capacity factor, and efficiencies typical of the era, they will consume around 2.6 Million Tonnes of coal per day.
That's a volume of 1 mile squared, 3'4" deep that has to be mined and burned every day. (1 mile squared, 1,200 feet high per year), and will produce approximately 1 mile squared, x 300 feet deep of ash per annum.
If the coal is open cut, it often involves moving 2-3 times that volume of earth to be moved. If it's underground, only50% of the coal will be dug, leaving the other 50% lost forever, and the hills around the mine will drop typically 3-4' as the mine passes under.
Like I said, I'm no coal anti, and it's a great way of making electricity out of a localised, intractible fuel.
I'm no fan of shifting transport to coal fired electricity, and loathe the concept of burning natural gas to make electricity too.
As an aside, Oz electricity prices are now 25c/KWHr, plus 62c/day for grid connection. People in my town are once again resorting to burning coal in open fireplaces, and it's nasty.
Can somebody educate me on why there is so much dislike for coal? We have plenty of it and I thought it was much cleaner today then ever before?
No dislike for coal here in any way, shape or form, but consider the following.
US has 340,000MW of coal (some of the plants are nearly 100 years old, although the median looks more like mid 50s through early 80s). Assuming that they run at an average 75% capacity factor, and efficiencies typical of the era, they will consume around 2.6 Million Tonnes of coal per day.
That's a volume of 1 mile squared, 3'4" deep that has to be mined and burned every day. (1 mile squared, 1,200 feet high per year), and will produce approximately 1 mile squared, x 300 feet deep of ash per annum.
If the coal is open cut, it often involves moving 2-3 times that volume of earth to be moved. If it's underground, only50% of the coal will be dug, leaving the other 50% lost forever, and the hills around the mine will drop typically 3-4' as the mine passes under.
Like I said, I'm no coal anti, and it's a great way of making electricity out of a localised, intractible fuel.
I'm no fan of shifting transport to coal fired electricity, and loathe the concept of burning natural gas to make electricity too.
As an aside, Oz electricity prices are now 25c/KWHr, plus 62c/day for grid connection. People in my town are once again resorting to burning coal in open fireplaces, and it's nasty.
