UK - Coal Free Electricity - 1st time since 1881

[Shannow]

http://www.theactuary.com/news/2016/11/no-coal-burnt-for-electricity-for-first-time-since-1881/ Six Days last qaurter, the UK used ZERO coal for electrical power (it has other uses, 'though)

Quote:

Their Electric Insights report, released today, shows how nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind and solar power, along with low-carbon imports from France, contributed to 50.2% of electricity in the latest quarter, up from 20% in 2010. In addition, carbon emissions from electricity consumption are at a record low, down a third over a 12-month period, largely due to a sharp decline in coal, with none burnt for almost six days in the last quarter – the first instance of this since 1881. Drax Power CEO, Andy Koss, said: “This report shows Britain’s energy system is changing dramatically and we are seeing real benefits. “Cleaner energy has reached a record high, and carbon emissions from electricity hit a record low. “But there is more to do to make Britain truly low carbon. Additional reliable, affordable, clean energy is needed on the system, along with a focus of getting the balance right. “More intermittent renewables like wind and solar are crucial but they will require more flexible back up, like biomass, to provide homes and business with electricity on demand.” The report shows that for the last quarter, nuclear power provided the largest share of low-carbon energy, generating 26% of the UK’s electricity, followed by wind power (10%), solar (5%), biomass (4%), low-carbon imports from France (4%) and hydro (1%). It was found that Britain now has 26gw of solar and wind installed, a six-fold increase since 2010, while biomass has increased from nothing to 2gw over the same period. The drop in carbon emissions comes after a quarter of Britain’s coal stations were shut down over the last 12 months according to the report, with plants producing just 7% of their maximum capacity in the last quarter, less than half the productivity of solar panels. Report author, Dr Iain Staffell, said: “My work with Drax provided an opportunity to apply my research to cut through the noise and understand Britain’s electricity is changing for the better. ‘We are so used to bad-news stories about the environment, so it is good to see that for once, concrete progress is being made.” However the report warns that volatile power prices should be expected in the future as the UK moves towards more weather-dependent sources, and subsequent supply and demand challenges, with the last quarter witnessing the highest energy prices for several years, and an all-time low.

 

[JHZR2]

Last sentence is key... bad with the good... "However the report warns that volatile power prices should be expected in the future as the UK moves towards more weather-dependent sources, and subsequent supply and demand challenges, with the last quarter witnessing the highest energy prices for several years, and an all-time low." This is where the monetization of controlled-charging of EVs, or better yet perhaps, the repurposing of end of life hybrid and EV batteries, would be highly beneficial.

 

[FCD]

Natural Gas is the future, there's mind bogglingly big reserves of it and it pollutes very little... all the buses in my area run on LPG and soon all the garbage trucks will too, it's great news Coal is horribly polluting, even China is starting to shut coal mines down.

 

[Donald]

Coal will be history soon for electricity generation. With the price of natural gas what power company wants to deal with coal, it's pollution and coal ash? I guess it's still used as coke for making cement and steel (I think). It's unfortunate that people believed Trump when he said he would bring back coal to places like KY. He can't. It's cheaper to dig surface coal out west for whatever coal is needed than mine it in KY. It's economic forces that are pushing down coal usage, not a presidential energy policy.

 

[FCD]

Coal isn't quite dead but it's evident that it's use will go down drastically in the future, Natural gas will be the king of fossile fuels in the future imo.

 

[Bluestream]

Same happening here: http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/en/archive/the-end-of-coal/

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream

Same happening here: http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/en/archive/the-end-of-coal/

Yes, but we also produce almost 90% of our power via nuke and hydro. Our coal generation capacity was tiny. Unfortunately, the whole situation was horribly managed and we now have the highest hydro rates in North America, so I wouldn't be cheering too loudly at this point. The Wynne/McGuinty push to get coal out of the picture and replace it with renewables without a proper plan in place has screwed all of us.

 

[Bluestream]

That's nothing new...

 

[OVERKILL]

LOL! Sure isn't

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver

Coal isn't quite dead but it's evident that it's use will go down drastically in the future, Natural gas will be the king of fossile fuels in the future imo.

Nope, the greenies refer to it as an "interim" fuel, and the Australian Experience is that it's gone from $4.30/GJ to $8 and $9/GJ since it started being used for widespread power, and (significantly) export. Simple cycle GTs make that a fuel cost alone of $160/MWh, CCGT $64/MWh... (16c, and 6.4c/KWh respectively). Here, and in the UK, Governments are doing deals (for undisclosed sums naturally) to keep the gas plants on to provide system security. The barmiest things are happening in UK AND Oz, with diesels now becoming the new revenue maker... https://www.ft.com/content/0f664c78-821b-11e5-8095-ed1a37d1e096

 

[OVERKILL]

The average price paid to natural gas generators in the province of Ontario is $0.215 per KWh. That is far more than the coal plants were ever paid and 3x what we pay Bruce Nuclear. They are actually paid more than the wind turbine operators, because of them needing to be dispatchable for when the intermittent generators are being, and their name implies, intermittent

 

[rshaw125]

But Europe and the UK import gas for electricity generation. Something like 40% from Russia. How can this scenario be positive?

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Donald

Coal will be history soon for electricity generation. With the price of natural gas what power company wants to deal with coal, it's pollution and coal ash? I guess it's still used as coke for making cement and steel (I think). It's unfortunate that people believed Trump when he said he would bring back coal to places like KY. He can't. It's cheaper to dig surface coal out west for whatever coal is needed than mine it in KY. It's economic forces that are pushing down coal usage, not a presidential energy policy.

"We're going to close down the coal companies and put a lot of coal miners out of work..cackle cackle" How to LOSE an election.

 

[bunnspecial]

Originally Posted By: Donald

Coal will be history soon for electricity generation. With the price of natural gas what power company wants to deal with coal, it's pollution and coal ash? I guess it's still used as coke for making cement and steel (I think). It's unfortunate that people believed Trump when he said he would bring back coal to places like KY. He can't. It's cheaper to dig surface coal out west for whatever coal is needed than mine it in KY. It's economic forces that are pushing down coal usage, not a presidential energy policy.

There is a LOT of surface mining in Kentucky even in the eastern coal fields. It's now the preferred method for extracting shallow veins, since it allows better than 90% removal(I think deep mining can only get something like 30%) although politically the mining techniques are somewhat of a hot button subject now.

 

[CT8]

It is so easy to fool the people these days.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: bunnspecial

There is a LOT of surface mining in Kentucky even in the eastern coal fields. It's now the preferred method for extracting shallow veins, since it allows better than 90% removal(I think deep mining can only get something like 30%) although politically the mining techniques are somewhat of a hot button subject now.

Can take the top off a 100 year old mine and get all that coal all these years later...where it's close enough to the surface. Yes, it initially leaves a moonscape, but the topsoil and overburden are cleared and stored to recover the site, and in a few decades aren't that noticeable. But they are quite small acreage in comparison to the acreage of biomass plantations that are going to replace them.

 

[bunnspecial]

Originally Posted By: Shannow

Originally Posted By: bunnspecial

There is a LOT of surface mining in Kentucky even in the eastern coal fields. It's now the preferred method for extracting shallow veins, since it allows better than 90% removal(I think deep mining can only get something like 30%) although politically the mining techniques are somewhat of a hot button subject now.

Can take the top off a 100 year old mine and get all that coal all these years later...where it's close enough to the surface. Yes, it initially leaves a moonscape, but the topsoil and overburden are cleared and stored to recover the site, and in a few decades aren't that noticeable. But they are quite small acreage in comparison to the acreage of biomass plantations that are going to replace them.

I travel a decent amount in Eastern KY(it's one of my favorite MG driving areas) and at the end of the day you're right that it's not that noticeable. There's very little flat land, and the mountain tops are going to get bulldozed anyway for big, flat areas for big box stores and the like. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking of a couple of strip malls around Hazard, KY and the Wal-Mart in Pikeville that are built on reclaimed surface mines. Still, though, like I said it's very much a hot button topic now. A lot of the old deep mines are too deep for surface mining, but they can also increase yields pretty dramatically by cutting the pillars at the face and allowing the mine to collapse as they pull back(retreat mining). Granted it's a fairly dangerous technique, but I think it allows about a 70-80% yield of the total coal in the seam. While we're at it, it's important to remember that there are two completely different types of Kentucky coal-Eastern and Western. Eastern Coal has been traditionally deep mined, although mountaintop removal is now used. Eastern KY coal is as a whole high grade bituminous with a high energy content, although some seams are high in sulfur. It's an excellent metallurgical coal, although it also makes a great heating coal as it's low in ash content. Western KY is almost always surface mined. As a whole, it is lower grade bituminous sometimes bordering on sub-bituminous and is also high in sulfur. About the only thing going for it is cost, but Powder River Basin coal is about the same and is much lower in sulfur. There will pretty much always be some demand for Eastern KY coal(along with WVa coal) as it is more attractively priced than PA Anthracite, can be coked to have similar properties for metallurgical uses, and gives more BTUs/dollar than PA coal. The demand for Western KY coal waxes and wanes with other energy prices.

 

[turtlevette]

I wonder if the english still burn coal in their fireplaces. I remember being in London and feeling my throat burning walking around.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: turtlevette

I wonder if the english still burn coal in their fireplaces. I remember being in London and feeling my throat burning walking around.

When I moved here, there were coal fires, and coal donkeys (central heating) everywhere (my place, the roof is still quite heavily contaminated from soot in the insulation, and I converted the coal skip to a vege garden. Wouldn't say that you choked, and this town was pretty bad being a valley, but there would be a thick pall of damp smoke blanketting the place, sulfurous smell (our sulfur's not bad on the scale of things, we don't have to do SOx control), and had a particular neighbour who couldn't run his donkey right, and would often leave our clothes smelling on the line. That all went 20 years ago with the widespread introduction of Natural Gas (town had town gas for hundred or so years, made from destructive distillation of coal), and an incentive to get coal fires gone. Now that natural gas is 3.59c/MJ+10% GST, pensioners are going back to coal, can see it of a winter's night the number of people who have gone back to coal. (for reference unleaded is 32MJ/L, and $1.27, 3.9c/MJ (diesel is 3.6c/MJ), with no daily connection fee). tose are inclusive of GST and transport taxes of 40% of total cost. Govt think tank said that high gas prices would force people to make rational decisions with energy...coal is rational if you are on a fixed income.