China promotes new era of coal-fired energy, despite pollution By Scott Simpson, Vancouver SunPublished: Wednesday, March 12, 2008
VANCOUVER - Despite global alarm about the threat that fossil fuel combustion poses to Earth's climate, coal appears poised to recover its 19th-century prominence as the world's top energy source, delegates at the Globe 2008 conference heard on Wednesday. Mark Josz, head of strategy and portfolio management for energy systems project managers Suez International, says the growth of coal-fired electricity generation in China is unprecedented in the history of electricity infrastructure development. Josz and other panelists at a Globe dialogue on future directions in the energy sector expect more of the same in the future - notwithstanding the massive global contribution that coal combustion makes to greenhouse gas emissions and the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At present, oil accounts for 36 per cent of world energy consumption, followed by coal with 27 per cent, followed by lesser amounts of natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectricity. "In 2006, China put into operation 105 gigawatts, which is [equivalent to] the entire electricity generation system of France," Josz said. He said 90 per cent of that generation was from coal plants, and China followed by adding 91 gigawatts of coal generation in 2007. "This is unique, we have never seen that in history. Coal was the energy of the 19th century, lost to oil in the 20th century, but clearly coal could be the fuel of reference for the 21st century." Other advantages include its abundance. Reserves are 1.5 times higher than combined proven reserves of oil and natural gas, and there's less supply and price risk because it's well-distributed, cheap and not subject to the price volatility of oil. BC Hydro president and CEO Bob Elton noted that across the world, more than two billion people still lack access to a reliable source of electricity - including people in many parts of China and Africa. He said China in particular is moving to end that disparity relative to Europe and North America, and they're using coal-fired generation to do it. "In the last year they added more coal plants to their fleet than the entire world added in renewable power," Elton said. "I don't think all these countries that are currently in the dark are going to change to renewables and conservation unless it's cheaper than fossil fuel because we didn't."
