Originally published November 29 2005
Coal begins to compete with gas after price hike
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Energy industry executive have noticed the increased role of coal in newer power plants, which they attribute to the relative stability of coal prices.
Dirty, yet abundant and easily shipped, coal is starting to challenge natural gas as the fuel of choice for new power plants.
This is because coal prices are relatively cheaper and not so volatile, industry executives and experts say.
Utilities around the world have increasingly turned to gas to meet a doubling of electricity demand over the next 25 years, while curbing greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon dioxide, blamed for causing global warming but this is changing.
There are relative price, emissions and security issues to take into account," said Gerald Doucet of the World Energy Council on the sidelines of a gas conference last week.
At a separate coal conference, the mining industry was also upbeat about demand to turn coal into synthetic fuels like diesel or gas, and urged greater efforts to develop technology to clean up the fuel's emissions.
"This is likely to continue as demand for power grows mainly in the developing economies.
But coal must remain competitively priced, especially as pollution abatement costs increase as carbon emission plans increase," said IEA chief Claude Mandil.
The European Union's emissions trading scheme that began this year has allowed gas and coal to compete for future power generation market share as CO2 allowances were given free to polluting power stations, says Europe's top power producer EDF.
"Gas is no longer the obvious environmental choice as it was two years ago," said Dominique Venet, executive vice president for gas at French power giant EDF.
EDF, the world's largest nuclear power producer, will add its 59th reactor by 2012, but also plans to modernise four coal-fired plants, and to reopen four oil-fired plants as it mainly uses its thermal plants to meet peak demand.
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