King Coal

Coal has remained the king of advanced society energy provision, yet supplying most of the electrical power and offering the longest time horizon of service among repository energy resources. Beyond this, over 6,000 beneficial coal-derivative products flow to society. As other repository fuels of lesser magnitude run out, it will be difficult to refrain from expanding coal production, exhausting longest-lasting coal deposits, and extinguishing coal’s multiplied benefit stream of derivative products.

Considering global energy supply and demand dynamics, coal should be retained in the portfolio. Coal combustion, however, must be technically transformed to contribute less airborne heat and pollution to our more densely inhabited planet. Use rate also should factor downward to preserve the byproduct array and extend its benefits to future generations.

Designs presented in this blog might help lower coal’s heat and pollution footprint. The cooler, quieter, forest-enriching power plant design could make coal a better friend of man and Nature. Considering the time-benefit stream, it would be unwise to react to process improvements by increasing the coal usage rate. A conservative implementation policy should prudently accompany these and other process innovations to ensure extended service of King Coal to future generations. A robust clean coal policy initiative must include provisions to relieve economic loss to coal company managements and employees whose manpower and expertise beckon preservation along with coal resources.

Labor reform might take the form of operating coal mines intermittently, half or quarter of the year. Were operating times in winter, summers could be used by miners to work their own home gardens for food and energy self-sufficiency, as in the Millennial Estate model of living. The coal mine winter underground work environment is no different than the summer environment, both remaining at a constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Throughout the winter, subsurface mine work actually proceeds at a higher temperature than traditional surface work. Intermittency should protect each employee’s job/position/pay package. Supply contracts must not fall prey to unreformed competition. Neither should any coal family be left to an uncertain, inhumane economic future on account of coal industry “down-pacing.”

The overarching energy coordination rationale should be one of stretching the coal supply out in time as far as possible, even if technological advance makes it a more desirable stock to volume-expand in the energy portfolio. General combustion energy use must decline to reign in global warming. Alternative “green” resources (solar, wind, hydro) contribute no heat to the environment, so may be considered Climate Healers. They are presently developing with investment favor, but stand at only 17% of the energy portfolio. Their proportionate growth is the real pacing factor for coal stretching.

Complementing the hot & cold energy supply dynamic is an unquestionable need for downward-factoring per-capita energy use among nations reaching developed (fully-built) status. Cold Energy can substitute for Hot Energy a lot sooner if the total energy “pie” is allowed to shrink. Obvious categories of energy over-indulgence are transportation and construction. Accounts that must be brought into balance include (1) commuting [just live where you work or work where you live] and (2) trans-global, long-logistic, international trade [restructure towards trans-national, short-logistic commerce within developed nations]. Advanced nations also must build for greater permanence, rejecting iterative build-re-build economics in favor of build-once and rachet down to maintenance economics.

#Coal #Clean