From Dr. Benny Peiser at The GWPF
Coal has been displacing gas generation in Europe since 2009 and the International Energy Agency expects this trend to continue, Ms Anne Sophie Corbeau, senior gas analyst for the International Energy Agency said that “We will have a Golden Age of Coal in Europe, at least over the next 5 years.” —CoalGuru, 11 October 2012
Europe is seeing a ‘golden age of coal’ thanks to cheap U.S. exports, said a senior gas analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA), an advisory body which last year proclaimed the world was heading for a ‘golden age of gas.’ Anne-Sophie Corbeau, senior gas analyst at the IEA, said gas was losing the battle in Europe’s power plants against cheap coal coming from the U.S., where the discovery of shale gas has left huge oversupply in unwanted coal. —Reuters, 5 October 2012
In Europe no golden age of gas will come. Europe is an exception to the shale revolution. We may be talking of a golden age of coal in Europe and this is (in) contrast with what is happening in the U.S. –Anne-Sophie Corbeau, Reuters, 5 October 2012
In one for future textbook definitions of unintended consequences, the example of increased coal use in Europe provides a spectacular own goal for green shale gas opponents. –Nick Grealy, No Hot Air, 11 October 2012
The real push to expand coal is coming from Europe and Asia, greenhouse gas emissions be damned. Aldyen Donnely, president of WDA Consulting Inc. in Vancouver, says there is no way the big coal powers are going to get out of coal, not even the United States, which holds 27.6% of the world’s proven coal reserves. Russia holds 18.2% and China 13.3%. “Those nations will keep coal in their core energy mixes as a national security consideration, if nothing else.” The conclusion is this on coal: Far from coming to an end or a peak, global coalification seems to be well underway. –Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, 11 October 2012
Environmental campaigners and green policy-makers are blocking shale developments in most European countries. As a result, Europe has failed to join the shale revolution that has swept the US. Instead of benefiting from cheap shale gas, lower CO2 emissions, new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs, Europe is constraining itself with self-imposed green limits to growth. As gas is displacing coal for electricity generation in the US, the shale revolution has led to a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions – down to 1992 levels. In order to replicate the US energy revolution, Europe would need to exit coal and switch to natural gas. Yet the green lobby’s shale gas blockade together with its opposition to nuclear energy is causing the exact opposite: it has led to a renaissance of coal. — Benny Peiser, Public Service Europe, 29 August 2012
State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) Thursday expressed confidence that it would be able to raise production by another 180 million tonnes during the 12th five year plan. This will lead to an increase in the CIL’s production to 615 million tonnes by financial year 2016-17, compared with 435.84 million tonnes in 2011-12. —NewsTracker India, 11 October 2012
German citizens will be paying a total of more than €20 billion ($25.7 billion) next year to promote renewable energy. This is more than €175 for an average three-person household, a 50 percent increase over current figures. The development is an embarrassment to Germany’s coalition government. —Spiegel Online, 10 October 2012
Pertinent link to Der Speigel here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/energy-turnaround-in-germany-plagued-by-worrying-lack-of-progress-a-860481-3.html
Just how f’ed are they?
King Coal won his 40-year fight against the Nukes… Champagne please!
The Nukes financed the public CO2/global warming -hype to put King Coal
out of business…..but wrong strategy….their own mistake, Nuke is out of
business soon….. We follow with glee…. Its time that Nuke will scrap its climate
change lie, the dices fell already …India and China will build 900 coal
power plants in the next 5 years. Folks, you pay for it with high electicity bills,
freezing at home and reading under the bad new, expensive light bulbs….but
you may get your consolation from green activists….
“…the discovery of shale gas has left huge oversupply in unwanted coal.”
–
That’s not the whole story. Many coal plants in the U.S. are shutting down due to tough new emissions standards that will be too expensive to meet. (Apparently, Europe doesn’t have emission standards anywhere near this tough if they’re expanding their use of coal.) What over-regulation of coal will do to the U.S can be summed up by the following headline: “Federal regs force coal plant closures now, higher rates later”.
The decline of Europe is almost funny. The export of money to carbon balancing projects in China and elsewhere has added to the decline of Europe and the advancement of China. Europe in general has their heads so far in the sand of the green movement, they can’t see a strong economy allows for the improvement of the environment. I would be rolling on the floor laughing, except for the tears.
With the well-proven Fischer-Tropsch process, coal can even be used as a feedstock for liquid fuels, thus augmenting oil supplies if or when the price of oil starts to rise too far.
Coal is not yet competitive, but as oil demand increases faster than oil production can, there will be a democratization of affairs.
Somewhere above the Seinfeld restaurant a Homer Simpson lookalike chews his Indiana Jones hat…
Nuclear power is making huge advances in every direction, especially fast reactors that can burn up nuclear wastes, intrinsically safe small modular reactors, reactors that can operate as mid or peak load generators, etc. . We have enough energy in our nuclear wastes right now to provide all the electricity this country will use for the next 1000 years, at current rates. And fast reactors are intrinsically safe and on the verge of becoming widespread. China is going for nuclear in a big way – they plan 600 reactors in the next 25 – 30 years and 1800 by the end of the century. India is also very active,as is Russia and the eastern European countries and even OPEC countries. There are currently either under construction or under review 435 reactors worldwide – as many as the world now operates. The Greenie beanies have pursued what one environmentalist called “an insane policy” by opposing nuclear power.They are dumb in so many, many ways.
George Osborne’s CO2 tax will double UK electricity bills
“Fast approaching, if largely unnoticed, is yet another massive shock the Government has in store for us with its weirdly distorted energy policy. It is surprising to see what an abnormally high proportion of the electricity needed to keep our lights on has lately been coming from coal-fired power stations. Last Wednesday evening, for instance, this was over 50 per cent, with only 1.3 per cent coming from wind power. Yet by next March, we learn, five of our largest coal-fired plants, capable of supplying a fifth of our average power needs, are to be shut down, much earlier than expected, under an EU anti-pollution directive.
One reason why these plants are being hammered through their remaining quota of hours allowed by the EU is that a new UK tax comes into force next April, which aims to make fossil-fuel power significantly more expensive. In 2010, George Osborne announced his intention to impose, from April 2013, a “carbon floor price” of £16 on every tonne of CO2 emitted by British industry, rising to £30 a tonne by 2020 and £70 a tonne by 2030.
An explicit purpose of this tax is to make the cost of electricity from fossil fuels so uncompetitive compared with “renewables” that it will, in the Treasury’s words, “drive £30‑£40 billion” of investment into “low carbon” sources such as wind and nuclear. On paper, the effect of Osborne’s new tax on our electricity bills looks devastating.” ~Christopher Booker
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9575598/George-Osbornes-CO2-tax-will-double-UK-electricity-bills.html
May I ask the US voter to consider how “leveling the playing field” and “attracting investors” into renewable energy would play out for us.
You gotta love it. Killing shale gas projects and nuclear in Europe leads to a nouveau renaissance in coal. Can there be any doubt that the greens are linear thinkers? Things are getting blander and blander. It must be another travesty in the making.
Louis says:
October 11, 2012 at 11:48 am
Apparently, Europe doesn’t have emission standards anywhere near this tough if they’re expanding their use of coal.
They don’t have an EPA to enact standards for CO2 emissions with no democratic oversight…..
First five UK coal stations to close in Spring.
The owners have been thrashing them this year to extract as much profit from them as possible before the regulations necessitate their closure.
The risk of major blackouts (now around 1:3000) will then be around 1:12, according to the regulator.
People don’t like shivering in the dark.
They’ll like it even less after seeing their energy bills skyrocket and hearing clueless politicians endlessly chirping about the wonders of ‘green’ energy. When they can see for themselves that the windmills aren’t working.
So I”m guessing all those “death trains” of coal in the US will be heading to ports to be loaded onto “death ships” bound for Europe? To be consistent with their new carbon tax on inbound flights, the EU will have to impose a carbon tax on imported coal.
The 7 continents, just as they taught me in elementary school:
Europe
Asia
North America
South America
Oceania
Africa
The former USSR
As climate conscious people we must not mention the place with the growing ice, and Europe must not be shown to use more coal than North America.
the public liked the idea of some global warming, so “climate scientists” in a “much-anticipated”(??) study tells them they’ll get washouts instead:
10 Oct: Guardian: Fiona Harvey: Global warming could make washout UK summers the norm, study warns
Scientists have established a clear link between shrinking Arctic ice and extreme weather in lower latitudes
Ice melting in the Arctic has been linked to duller, wetter English summers in a much-anticipated study published online on Wednesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters…
Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield in the UK and Rutgers and Washington in the US, with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have established what they say is a clear link between the shrinking ice and more extreme weather in lower latitudes, through weather effects such as the “Arctic amplification” and shifting wind patterns.
Edward Hanna, co-author of the study at Sheffield University, said the research should alert people in the UK to the reality of global warming: “It really puts global warming in the public eye. It’s virtually impossible to predict the weather for any particular summer but we could have cooler, wetter summers on average in the UK because of this effect. That’s not to say we won’t get hot, dry summers but just that these might not be as frequent as you might expect from a straightforward global warming effect. There seems to have been a new regime in summer 2007 that has more or less stayed in place since.”…
***For the new study, researchers examined data from the past six summers. They found west- to east-flowing winds in high latitudes have been replaced by a wavier pattern in those years, which contributed to the dull weather further south.
Many people in the UK assume that global warming would bring them hotter and drier weather – a “Mediterranean climate”, according to common predictions. This study shows that the reality may be much less pleasant…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/10/global-warming-washout-summer?newsfeed=true
“Europe doesn’t have emission standards anywhere near this tough,”
The UK does – it is the only country to have enacted legally binding emissions targets, and these have been highlighted in this years budget. There will be a floor of £16 per ton of co2 emissions from 2013, rising to £30 per ton by 2020. This is at a time when the European trading certificates are worth £6 per ton. So the UK is stuffed, hoisted by its own petard.
another predetermined exercise…or vacation?
12 Oct: Brisbane Times: Australian scientists in joint Antarctic ice survey
Date
Scientists have produced the first three dimensional map of the surface beneath Antarctic sea ice, helping them better understand the impact of climate change on Antarctica…
“The ice thickness is regarded amongst climate scientists as the holy grail of determining changes in the system,” Antarctic marine glaciologist Jan Lieser told Reuters.
“If we can determine the change in the thickness of the sea ice we can estimate the rate of change that is due to global warming.”…
Lieser, who is aboard an Australian icebreaker in Antarctic waters, is part of the Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem Experiment project, involving scientists from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United States…
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/climate-change/australian-scientists-in-joint-antarctic-ice-survey-20121012-27ggh.html
The geenies/feds are even trying to stop shipments of coal due to “coal dust” supposedly coming off of the coal cars on rail shipments intended for export to wiser nations. The dust is deadly, or so it is propagandized. The green people never give up in their endless pursuit of anti-progress, anti-development nonsense in the name of “progressive” politics. Given their way they will progress us back to the stone age.
October 11, 2012 at 12:38 pm |Gary Pearse says
———————————–
It occurred to me that the support of the move to coal may have sinister origin in that the generators will be require to purchase more carbon credits to offset increased CO2 emissions thereby shoring up the carbon markets. Gas and nuclear doesn’t help the bankers’ cause. Is this observation valid ?
The sooner politicians realise that (free) economies will self correct, eventually, the sooner they might learn that it only takes a light touch.
The bubbles will keep coming, it is human nature.
To prolong the bubble, is failed policy.
Given a choice between economic prosperity and the statist control of a politically directed economy that is par for the course with the Green Energy emphasis, prosperity goes. I was reading someone’s official recent report on Europe and the only way they could possibly come up with assertions that Green Growth can generate growth at all was to redefine growth so that quality of life and personal well-being from the welfare state got baked into growth. Even with that gamemanship it was close to stagnant.
I am afraid the window on economic freedom anywhere is closing. Especially with K-12 stressing the “murderous sociopathology of capitalism” and the need to have a new economic system without pecuniary profit. The kids will know too little history to appreciate what is wrong with what they are being told. Too many teachers and especially administrators have always lived at taxpayer expense and do not understand why Everyone cannot as well.
Such a narrow window we have to reeducate such a large percentage of our young people. They have been trained to feel much and know little that is accurate.
They might be ramping up coal production in mainland Europe and Asia, but in the country where the first industrial revolution was fuelled by the black stuff is doing the opposite. In Britain we are shutting down coal-fired power stations. Micro power stations – such as the small diesel-engined power stations on the numerous islands that have been idle for years – are being overhauled to provide high-cost back-up power for when the wind fails to blow. This is especially when high pressure systems lead to the coldest temperatures in mid-winter.
From the ever-brilliant xkcd, a fun look at wind energy
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/undoing.png
PS: Must take a look at John Cook’s cartoons one day. Or not.
Could it be that Western Europe, without anyone saying it overtly, is becoming wary of gas because much of it comes from Russia. Russia has used gas as an economic and political tool againts Ukraine.
Just a thought…
Rob Potter says: (October 11 at 12:48 pm)
… “They don’t have an EPA to enact standards for CO2 emissions with no democratic oversight…..”
Don’t worry, Rob, we have the European Commission to do it for us. And we all have the UN … unless people wake up pretty darned soon and DO something about it.
Before he became the Democratic Party front-runner in the Spring of 2008, then Sen. Obama co-sponsored a Coal-to-Liquid subsidy bill that would have guaranteed a bottom price of $40/barrel. That is what the industry considered to be a reasonable price to reclaim their investment in a startup market. Unfortunately, the F-T process outputs prodigious amounts of CO2, which is politically unacceptable at the moment.
As in-situ pyrolization of coal becomes more viable, you can add deep coal and other difficult to mine sources to proven reserves.
My gas and electricity bills (UK. British Gas) will rise by 8% almost immediately. This is just a start. My wages will rise by 0.2% next April – by which time there will be another energy cost rise.
I have 3 children under 8 years old. They will grow up in a cold world. Poor.
Politicians fail to think about what happens when people get desperate.
When Germans got desperate in the 1930s, they elected Adolf Hitler. Many other nations have done similar things in the past.
If half the British population can’t afford to heat their homes one cold winter because of high energy taxes, or restrictive energy policies, you can bet that they’ll be willing to elect anyone who promises to repeal these policies.
And, if none of the conventional, “mainstream” parties will do that, they’ll elect someone completely different. We can only hope that such newcomers govern wisely.
So much depends on what happens on Nov. 6. If there is a change in the administration there will be a refocusing on low cost energy.If this happens coal , oil and gas will be given a major boost. The effect of this will be dramatic and very visible. Visible enough for even the European population to notice and demand the removal of the green policies. The Europeans think they are so civilized, and Americans so….so… well … it will irk them to no end that the U.S.A. has turned the corner simply by ignoring the green agenda and focusing on the production of cheap energy.If the Demoncrats win the Presidency, all the above is mute.
The future belongs to Thorium reactors but the present belongs to gas, oil, and coal.
I’ve been reading about those heavy coal freight trains over there in the USA. It takes some 4 locomotives to haul 20,000 tons of coal. Given that 1 coal wagon takes 4 times as much coal as a road truck, that hugely efficient transportation. Imagine a thousand truck road convoy. Incidentally, i’ve noticed that freight trains are getting much longer in the UK
Asia’s coal giant is not India but China. India’s CO2 output is less than a quarter of China’s.
This article lays the emphasis on the wrong nation, sloppy!
We gotta lot of coal in Oz. Also lots in Indonesia. Of course your experts know there are two main types, coking, for steel making (most valuable) and thermal, mainly for power generation. Prices are coming down here, to the extent that some marginal mines are closing. We export heaps to Japan, China and India. Cheers from freezing Sydney.
Standard of living is directly related to energy ROI – the excess energy beyond what is required to produce it (drilling, mining, distribution, etc.) provides our standard of living as well as the opportunity to invest in making us more efficient at using what we have and move on to the next big thing. Solar and wind and one-way tickets to a significantly lowered standard of living due to the low (or even negative) eROI. The next step forward (assuming we want to go forward) is clearly nuclear because the potential eROI is so high (assuming we can get the parasites to back off).
(Keynesian economics is the economic equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. Spending levels are an indicator of economic health, not a cause. Energy is the key.)
Solar and wind “are” one-way tickets to poverty.
We have one functioning 1/2 FT plant in the USA, and it is the most difficult part. The gasifier. CVR Energy has a gasifier in operation using petroleum coke (very similar to coal) to make CO. An FT plant would take this stream plus hydrogen, and go to liquid fuels. At CVR they take the CO through a shift reactor and make hydrogen. The hydrogen then combines with nitrogen and they make ammonia, then other nitrogen fertilizers (UAN). Their raw material is basically free. The Air Force was going to do the same thing with coal, but go to liquid fuels via FT after the gasifier (including the shift reactor for the H2). However, the Greens shut it down since they don’t want an outlet for coal. You can also do it with natural gas, by the way. FT is very doable.
Zeke, “May I ask the US voter to consider how “leveling the playing field” and “attracting investors” into renewable energy would play out for us.”
Disastrous, especially with fiscal cliff looming, no doubt about it.
Can I ask you a question, though? Will replacing Ben Bernanke (as Romney has vowed to do) instill confidence in investment into much of anything? Even just cleaner nat gas, which has been pulling far more investment funds than renewable lately. It appears that realization might be hitting home, markets are turning bearish.
P Wilson says:
October 11, 2012 at 4:43 pm
I’ve been reading about those heavy coal freight trains over there in the USA. It takes some 4 locomotives to haul 20,000 tons of coal. Given that 1 coal wagon takes 4 times as much coal as a road truck, that hugely efficient transportation. Imagine a thousand truck road convoy. Incidentally, i’ve noticed that freight trains are getting much longer in the UK
=========
You ain’t seen nuthin, we have river barges and lake freighters 🙂
Here is a man that loves his “job”:
http://duluthshippingnews.com/
Surely the UK will have to tell the EU to go jump some time soon.
It does appear that the now effectively German run EU is making the UK pay for past successes
Here’s a relevant Oct. 7 article:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/909371-u-s-coal-exports-to-europe-at-record-highs
“U.S. coal exports to Europe increased by 29% YoY in the first quarter of 2012, as power companies in the continent switch from natural gas to coal for power generation. Power generating companies in Europe are taking advantage of the lower prices of coal and the fall in carbon emission fees. Natural gas prices are currently at high levels in Europe because they are associated with oil prices. U.S. coal exports have been increasing. Total U.S. exports stood at 28.6MMST in the first quarter of 2012. Almost half of U.S. coal exports are to Europe.”
The folly of green energy only seems practical because it is highly subsidized by fossil fuels at the moment. The impact of peak oil has only begun to ripple through the economy. Taxing and restricting carbon does not produce any energy return. Mostly all the schemes so far are just shell games where carbon not burned in Europe just causes more carbon to be burned in China. All the global warming propaganda has not decreased global carbon releases at all. The trivial amount of money saved by CFLs doesn’t come close to paying for the gasoline prices caused by hitting oil production limits. Causing energy prices to go up means we are losing not winning. The same with ethanol mandates. Ethanol only looks credible as an auto fuel because of the huge amount of fossil fuels burned to produce the ethanol. Actually it’s just converting NG to a liquid fuel and destroying the food supply at the same time. Rather than mitigating the adverse effects of energy supply constraints most government intervention can be traced back to a scheme to benefit the politically connected at the expense of everybody else.
There is plenty of coal available so use it. Scrub out the SO2, and make wall board with the residue, the rest will help crops grow larger. Provided the idioticly costly CCS is ignored there is a cost benefit for us over charged consumers.
****
P Wilson says:
October 11, 2012 at 4:43 pm
I’ve been reading about those heavy coal freight trains over there in the USA. It takes some 4 locomotives to haul 20,000 tons of coal. Given that 1 coal wagon takes 4 times as much coal as a road truck, that hugely efficient transportation. Imagine a thousand truck road convoy. Incidentally, i’ve noticed that freight trains are getting much longer in the UK.
****
Where I worked, N&S trains typically had 2 Dash locos (that burn cheap bunker oil instead of diesel) @ 4400 HP each, 100-120 coal cars (over a mile long) w/120 ton loads each. So ~12000 – 14000 tons each train. They were heading east for export at the Norfolk, VA seaport.
http://www.krunk.org/ns-nrv/glenlyn/
Even heavier trains are run on more level routes. By far the most efficient form of bulk-material land transport.
We don’t need US coal in the UK, we have our own trash to burn!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/9604112/Ed-Davey-approves-giant-incinerator-in-foe-George-Osbornes-constituency.html
The ongoing and largely successful effort to demonize coal in the U.S. is ample proof of the power of the media on the one hand, and the incompetence of our leaders – if that’s what it is – on the other.
Coal is relatively inexpensive, and it is abundant. Only morons or evil men would seek to prohibit use of our cheapest, most cost-effective fuel. Unfortunately, due to the power of the boob tube and other mass media, It’s been easy for them to recruit a vast army of Malthusian ideologues, misguided zealots, and other self-righteous green reactionaries who assume a badge of moral superiority in their deluded quest to save the world.
It was coal that fired the industrial revolution, and it is coal they now wish to take from us in order to effect industrial devolution, at least in the previously prosperous, industrious, and industrialized West. Meanwhile, in Asia, they burn all the coal they need, but that’s OK because China was “the Sick Man of Asia” for all those decades, and well, I guess what goes around, comes around.
It might get cut off at the pass. Much further along is the demo micro-fusion project at LPPhysics.com . Private, but with even shoestring funding ( <$2 million ) it could/should show break-even this year and be off to the races. It is projected to begin supplying power within about 4-5 yrs at less than 1/10 current best capital and output costs (around 6¢/W to build, 0.3¢/kWh). Totally “clean” and waste-free.
EU is doing so many economically irrational things at once it’s hard to keep track of them! And, of course, introducing the datum that CO2 is beneficial and its output should be encouraged, or at the very least ignored, would really put the cat amongst the pigeons!
Canada is blessed. Schadenfreude to the east of us, schadenfreude to the south of us …
Just don’t crash the whole world’s economy, ‘Kay?
The political beast feeds rarely.
British species of politician require feeding only once every five years,fighting for and consuming as many votes as they can.
Power blackouts in the seventies saw off governments in short order.Margaret Thatchers government survived the miners strikes in the eighties only because of massive stockpiling of coal.
I`m not too worried.
When the lights start going out,or more importantly business and consumers simply can`t afford to switch them on we`ll vote them out,and vote in ANY party that delivers plentiful and affordable power.(Goodbye Tories, Goodbye Labour, Goodbye LibDems, Goodbye greens.)
If government continues to exhibit its obsessive compulsive attitude towards co2 emissions,
we are going live in politically `interesting times` indeed.
I must check out UKIPs energy policies