Let’s have clean energy as soon as possible. Let’s find a better way than polluting the air to keep our planet cool.

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(You can get a lot of this data from eia.doe.gov). Using values from this website, the US generated 4063 billion kW-hr in 2007. Assuming an exponential increase in the amount of electricity generated and using the projection from eia.goe.gov of a 25% increase by 2030 (this is pretty generous considering better energy efficient devices and better conservation practices), you can make an equation of exponential form A=A0e^(kt) with t being years. Using the projection you can calculate a value of k. Now take the total current US coal reserves (these are proven) and divide by the average energy content of coal, 13,000 BTU/lb. (there are many different types of coal depending on the region). This gives the total energy content able to be extracted. Multiply this by an average efficiency of coal power generated plants, 30% (this will obviously increase with time but 30% will be used for simplicity’s sake and to give the worst case scenario). You can then solve for t, years, which turns out to become 438 YEARS!!!

The finite resource argument is obviously not of concern for the near future because with the following conditions assuming all the electricity is generated using coal with the lowest current efficiency, coal will be available in the US for use for 438 years. This length of time will obviously increase while other technologies are utilized.

I’m not suggesting that we should continue using coal for that amount of time, but any argument suggesting phasing out coal immediately because of its limited supply is obviously misguided.

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“Not living in a dreamland,” you are right in stating that many states could potentially sustain all their energy needs with renewable energy. What the article forget to touch on and most environmentalists ironically tend to forget is the cost. But wait, doesn’t it state that energy prices for these technologies has significantly decreased? Yes, it’s true. But it’s also a little misleading. The average cost of coal-generated electricity is $.05/kW-hr with it reaching $.10/kW-hr in places like NY. Wind and solar are getting lower every year but are still in a range above $.10 or so (this depends greatly on the region). The reason for this is that capital costs are not being factored into this cost. The government is subsidizing most new alternative energy projects which is great, but the money has to come from some source and that means taxes. So yes, I’m more than positive that we can sustain our energy needs with current alternative energy sources. What you forget is that typical solar farms costing $millions have average max capacities of 25 MW and wind farms reaching maybe 100 MW. The average coal power plant reaches capacities of 500 MW to 1.5 GW (1500MW). In terms of capital costs, they’re about 80% cheaper per MW to build. With such small capacities, we would require thousands of solar farms and wind farms. This would cause concern over land usage and we can even get into health issues as wind turbines move closer and closer to residential areas causing significant noise pollution, and with the requirement of high voltage power lines to transfer this generated energy, higher risks for cancer.

In terms of the research aspect, yes CCS is not in any sort of production scale quite yet, but that is not the main part of Clean Coal Technologies. You also forget that wind and solar are not perfect. In fact, efficiencies for these are either outrageously low with cheaper cells like Dye-Sensitized Cells or decent with very expensive and less flexible silicon photovoltaics. We’re already pumping billions and billions of dollars into solar cell research (Wash U received a $20 billion grant from the DOE).

For “Grounded in Reality,” you proved my point in this article that you don’t quite understand this whole Clean Coal thing. Clean Coal is quite simply a name pointing to the coal technologies that allow for higher efficiency power generation, separation of pollutants, and future carbon capture and sequestration. All you looked for in my argument was semantic issues. I admitted that the term “Clean Coal” might be misleading to the public because it portrays a false image of coal being burned completely clean and free from all pollutants and GHG’s. By stating that we currently have Clean Coal technologies, I’m stating that there are currently technologies that allow us to burn coal more efficiently and cleaner. I’m not trying to convince you that it’s perfectly clean.

The fact is, many of the issues that come from coal power plants are there because many power plants are extremely outdated. Some 40 year old power plants continue to run in terrible shape that don’t implement new technologies to clean up the combusted materials, but they can’t be replaced due to government regulation. Many of you are mistaken in thinking that we don’t have Clean Coal technologies NOW. We can easily increase power plant efficiencies from 30% up to 50-60% by replacing outdated plants and retrofitting old ones. Technologies such as IGCC which actually gasifies the coal allowing for easier separation of sulfur and other hazardous compounds and then generating CH4, using the heat to generate steam so that a steam turbine AND a natural gas turbine can be utilized for maximum efficiency. You are even able to utilize a SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) with the excess heat so that you have 3 sources of electricity generation within one cycle. This keeps wasted heat to a minimum. There are a few examples of these plants working in other countries like Sweden but not in the US. Why? Government regulation. So yes, we can’t capture the CO2 right now but we can definitely hit the source of all that CO2 (combusting coal) and therefore decrease the amount of coal needed to be burned (which will decrease CO2 output/kW-hr).

The fact is, I completely support alternative energy sources. I really do. I would love to be able to eliminate the need to burn coal. The issue right now is that I’m not willing to empty the wallets of those who can barely afford electricity now because we want to jump right into the future. Instead, a more gradual approach must be made with diversity of energy. Alternative energy sources won’t eliminate all our problems. There are plenty of issues with them as well. You talk about environmental impacts. Take hydrothermal power for instance. There are plenty of negative implications with drilling deep into the earth to retrieve heat to bring it to the surface. Not only do you destroy habitats, but the temperature changes underground due to the loss of heat could definitely cause some issues. Solar energy also has plenty of issues in terms of land usage. Yes, maybe the problems aren’t as big of an issue as with coal, but let us not forget that there is not one end-all solution.

Alright, that’s all for now. Oh, and for credibility sakes I am a chemical engineer. I don’t claim to know everything (I definitely don’t), but this is definitely not just an extracurricular activity for me. I plan to make my career on this.

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I’d also like to add that there are many other renewable technologies that are at least as deserving of research funding: geothermal, WAVE/tidal energy :), and hydroelectric, to name a few. Your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!

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