Had an American Senior engineer from a very innovative company who supply non OEM spares to the power industry world wide.
He stated that he's amazed when he comes to Australia, as we put the power stations where the coal is, while the US it's not uncommon for a station to be situated such that the coal has to be transported by rail for over 1,000 miles.
Given that a 1,000MW needs around 10,000 tonnes of coal each and every day that it runs, why on Earth would you intentionally build a power station so far from the coal ?
I can think of a few, but in each case they don't make a huge amount of sense:
- Job creation...lots of jobs in moving megatonnes around the place.
- Lobbying for putting a power station in a particular location...but nobody wants them.
- An excuse to build a greater than necessary rail system to move large volumes of stuff in times of crisis.
- putting them where the water is...but new dry stations are going up in Oz as we speak.
Why ?
He stated that he's amazed when he comes to Australia, as we put the power stations where the coal is, while the US it's not uncommon for a station to be situated such that the coal has to be transported by rail for over 1,000 miles.
Given that a 1,000MW needs around 10,000 tonnes of coal each and every day that it runs, why on Earth would you intentionally build a power station so far from the coal ?
I can think of a few, but in each case they don't make a huge amount of sense:
- Job creation...lots of jobs in moving megatonnes around the place.
- Lobbying for putting a power station in a particular location...but nobody wants them.
- An excuse to build a greater than necessary rail system to move large volumes of stuff in times of crisis.
- putting them where the water is...but new dry stations are going up in Oz as we speak.
Why ?