Bank on coal for future
Published:Tuesday | June 17, 2014 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Coal helped many countries such as United States (US) and China achieve industrial success. It is cheap, abundant and has low transportation cost. Furthermore, coal's world reserves are enough for more than 119 years, at current consumption level, whereas proven oil and gas reserves are for 46 and 63 years, respectively, at current production levels.
Oil and gas reserves are not geographically dispersed, whereas coal reserves are spread around the world. It is not surprising that coal provides 30 per cent of global energy needs and generates 41 per cent of world electricity. China, US and India are the largest producers and consumers of coal in the world. The biggest exporters are Australia, Indonesia and Russia.
Forty-one per cent of world power generation is from coal. Forty-nine per cent of power generation in US and 79 per cent in China is from coal. International coal prices are very stable and coal is cheaper than oil and natural gas.
dirty fuel
The main argument against coal is that it is dirty fuel and harmful for the environment. This criticism belongs to the past, as clean coal technology (technological options which reduce emissions, reduce waste, and increase the amount of energy gained from each tonne of coal) has made tremendous advancement over the last two decades.
Modern coal plants employ scrubbers to remove particulates from flue gas, capture between 80 and 90 per cent of carbon and other greenhouse gases, and offer energy efficiency of 50 per cent. This clean, green, coal technology, can offer competitively priced baseload power without harming the environment.
Environmental protection must be planned as a means to promote development and not as an obstacle to the rising expectation of developing countries like Jamaica.
The bottom line is that coal is plentiful and cheap. Pollution levels of modern plants are drastically lower than coal power plants of the past.
Jamaica is facing low economic growth and unemployment, and we need investment and jobs to avoid worsened social dysfunction. Cost of energy is one of our major problems. Let's go for coal.
TASHFEEN AHMAD
Kingston