a.ashfield <[email protected]> wrote:
> The World Bank refuses to lend money for cheap new coal fired power > stations "because of environmental concerns." Presumably future children > are more valuable than the ones actually being killed now. > Coal fired plants kill roughly 20,000 people in the U.S. per year, and roughly 250,000 people per year in China: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/12/china-coal-emissions-smog-deaths If you are thinking that "environmental concerns" are only about global warming, you do not understand the current cost of coal. It is by far the most expensive fuel when you take into account how many people it kills. It is only cheap because power companies pay nothing to the families of the victims. If a normal industry, such as the airlines or food manufacturers, were to kill 20,000 Americans it would be driven out of business in six months. (I realize that automobiles and guns kill tens of thousands of people. With automobiles we have no alternative, but we will once self driving cars are developed, and I do not think human driven cars will be allowed for long after they are introduced. The gun manufacturers are not a normal business.) This is the 21st century. We do not need to rely on 18th century fuel. Even if First World nations must protect themselves from global warming by subsidizing modern technology in the Third World -- such as solar, wind or nuclear -- it would still be better than building coal-fired plants. In India, starting this year or next, solar electricity will be cheaper than coal-fired electricity, especially when you take into account the cost of the grid. Coal-fired plants are only economical on a large scale and they require a large grid. If you want power for a village with no grid, solar is already cheaper, just as cell phones are cheaper than landmines in the Third World. In Morocco and Dubai, CSP solar will soon be producing the cheapest electricity in history. Granted these are desert areas which are ideal for any kind of solar plant, but there is more than enough potential solar energy (PV or CSP) in North Africa to power all of Africa and Europe. - Jed
