Coal Still a Key Power Source

In an article for Forbes, Christopher Helman wrote today that although solar, wind, and natural gas industries are booming, they will not be able to replace coal in the wake of sweeping plant shutdowns due to new EPA rules in the United States. According to Forbes, coal is still responsible for 19 quadrillion Btu of power out of a total of 96.5 quads of energy generated each year in the U.S., compared with less than 1 quadrillion btu from solar.

As quoted in the publication:

For all the talk of “grid parity” the simple reality is that even combined with far more power generation from natural gas, renewable alternatives will need decades to push out coal. And the irony will be that as demand for coal lessens, it will become cheaper and cheaper, making it even more attractive for the coal-burning power plants that survive the coming cull. The direct cost of generating electricity from coal is 2.5 cents per Kwh.

Bob Yu, analyst at Bentek, a division of Platts, told Forbes:

Winter was a reminder that natural gas is used for heating. Coal consumption was up a lot this winter because of natural gas demand by retail buyers.

Click here to read the full Forbes article.