greenhouse, page-5

report on the UK shows that in spite of abundant coal the gov is moving away from coal until it can be cleaned up which may take 20 years. Indonesia has doubled its coal exports and is set to undercut us in thermal coal due to cheaper costs + freight. Here are some articles:
A third of Britain’s electricity is generated from coal, which is much more abundant than gas. The British coal industry is perceived as being in decline but it still produces half of what is required for the country’s coal-fired stations, says UK Coal. Globally, it is estimated that reserves of coal are four times greater than those of gas.

But the government seems less enthusiastic than industry about coal. The energy review launched last Monday was the strongest hint yet that ministers are eyeing nuclear energy as the panacea for Britain’s energy woes.

Andrew Cox, manager of Energy Intelligence and Marketing Research, said: “They first talked about clean coal before the 1997 election and we are still waiting for some meaningful level of support. Coal can, and should, have a key role. It needs government support. Just backing nuclear energy would be foolish.”

However, unless coal-fired stations are made cleaner Britain will struggle to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions. The latest coal-fired power stations are striving to improve their environmental performance by burning a greater percentage of biomass, including willow trees and olive cake — the material left over when olives have been pressed for oil. Drax, which produces 7% of Britain’s electricity, already uses olive cake and would like to increase its use of biomass from 2.5% to 8% of fuel burnt over the next couple of years. Even at 2.5%, biomass is helping Drax to reduce carbon- dioxide emissions by half a tonne a year.

The greatest excitement, however, is reserved for carbon capture and storage, a technology in its infancy.

Carbon dioxide is one of a cocktail of gases emitted by power stations. Carbon capture seeks to separate it out, but this is expensive. Once separated, the gas can be stored in geological structures, either dissolved in water, held in porous rock or trapped under a layer of rock it cannot permeate. Storage is less technically demanding than separation; the Norwegian company Statoil has been pumping carbon dioxide into a sandstone layer under the North Sea for years.

In this country, BP is testing carbon capture and storage at a gas-fired plant at Peterhead, in Scotland. Other companies are considering burying carbon dioxide in old North Sea oilfields.

Drax’s Melanie Wedgbury said the power station was unwilling to invest in costly technology such as advanced supercritical heating and carbon capture before the government gave assurances on how the energy market would look in 10 to 15 years.

To make clean coal a reality, others say the government may have to provide grants or devise a mechanism allowing electricity generators to sell emission-free energy at a premium.

Wedgbury feels it would be unwise of the government to ignore coal in its three-month review of energy policy. She said: “We welcome the review. The 2003 review was ambiguous on the future of coal but the fuel meets the government’s goals of security of supply and affordability. In terms of the environment, the technology is available to clean up coal’s performance and allow it to approach that of gas-fired plants.”

This time round, coal will have to be clean to be king.
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Indonesia - which led a surge in global coal production last year - may cut shipments in 2007 because of increased domestic demand as it builds power plants to ease an electricity shortage.
The country might export 5per cent less than the 122million tonnes forecast this year, the chairman of Indonesia's Coal Mining Association, Jeffrey Mulyono, said.

"Producers are going to be supplying more to the domestic market, where demand is surging because three new power plants are starting up this year," Mr Mulyono said. "Local consumption may reach 35per cent of total output next year compared with 30per cent this year."

Japanese power generators might have to pay higher prices for Indonesian coal next year to secure supplies, he said.

Indonesia has doubled shipments since 2000 and last year overtook Australia to become the world's biggest coal exporter to utilities. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto Group and other coal producers in Indonesia, Australia and South Africa increased spending to expand their mines after coal prices soared in 2005, led by China's rising consumption. Demand for coal gained as crude oil and natural gas prices rose to records. Coal prices in Asia may fall almost 20per cent to less than $US45a tonne this year because of increased shipments. Indonesia exports its coal to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Europe.