Coal’s future lies in Asia

[IsailedawayfromFR]

There is no doubt that coal, along with oil, has been the foundational bedrock for the industrial success of the 19th and 20th centuries. Amid the current century’s growing concerns for climate change, many world leaders have hopped on an anti-coal bandwagon and are increasingly insisting on a transition to renewables.

So, the big question is: Will coal, a life-saving energy source, survive the onslaught of an anti-fossil brigade? The answer is a resounding yes. Big coal consumers, especially in Asia, are beginning to soundproof their coal sector from renewable noises.

It is well understood that India and China together constitute the biggest coal-consuming block and are also the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitters. As part of the Paris climate pact, both India and China were expected to progressively reduce their dependency on coal. However, recent investments and energy strategies laid out in these countries portray a different picture.

India for example explicitly stated this year that coal will play a significant role in its ambition to become a $5 trillion economy. That is according to India’s home minister, a powerful figure in the government’s decision-making process. To realize this vision, India has acted to increase production, improve coal technology, and modernize its coal plants.

More than 70 percent of all electricity consumed by India’s 1.3 billion people comes from coal. The state-run Coal India said that it is increasing supply this year to meet unprecedented demand for coal in the power sector. Despite an increase in coal production and supply to power plants, “

• n August 28, there was a massive power supply shortage of 77.7 million units (MU), compared to the shortage of 2.3 MU recorded on the same day in 2020 and a paucity of 18.9 MU shortage recorded on the corresponding day in 2019. As of last week, a majority of the country’s 135 coal plants had just a week’s supply of coal.

“All efforts are being made in cooperation with railway authorities to enhance dispatch to meet the unprecedented growth in demand for coal-based power,” the coal ministry said. This demand for coal is forecasted to grow consistently for the next few decades as India’s energy needs will be among the highest in the world.

The country knows that it needs not only a steady supply of coal but also a higher number of coal plants to generate reliable and affordable electricity. Reuters noted that India is planning to build new coal plants as they are still the cheapest electricity source capable of producing electricity in high-demand situations. One such new plant is Vedanta’s 1.98-Gigawatt coal plant in India’s Punjab, which is expected to be operational in 2021.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/09/coals_future_lies_in_asia.html

Couple this piece with the current dearth of electricity and gasoline in Europe and one can easily see who will dominate the world if Americans continue the insane path of abandoning hydrocarbons, which have almost singlehandedly been responsible for the industrial revolution and for our current standards of living.

[Fishrrman]

Title and presumption:
"Coal’s future lies in Asia"

Coal has "a future" here in The West as well, but for now it's been put on hold.

It will take 50-75 years for the "green madness" to work its way through the Western nations. We'll be long gone, but that day in time will arrive.

When the natural gas plays out...
When the nuclear plants have all closed (few, if any will be built in The West during the next 50 years or longer)...
When it finally becomes apparent that neither "wind" nor "solar" can in any way satisfy the needs of large populations or industrial societies...
When the lies of "a green future" simply can no longer be kept puffed up like an overblown soufflé and finally collapse...

... then all the coal in the ground -- centuries worth -- will still be there, waiting.
It will then be used.

And with that, I'm going to introduce to you a new law of economics, which I will call "Fishrrman's law of energy resources":
Any and all energy resources will eventually be used when needed.
The only variable is how badly the need to extract and use them becomes.