Energy 2.0 » coal

China to Enact Strict Plan for Energy Conservation

mdlittlehale — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:06:34 +0000

A coal-fired power plant in Shuozhou, Shanxi, Chin

Unrest in the Middle East has yielded change in the region, but the effects of anti-government protests are slowly being felt globally as oil soars to its highest price in over 2 years. The New York Times reported that Chinese Energy Specialists revealed that the government plans to announce strict goals for energy conservation.

Make no mistake, this is not an altruistic attempt by the world’s leading energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter to go green or make strides to curb carbon footprint (energy security far out ways climate change in Chinese policy priorities). China views energy as a national security issue; the concern here is how rising oil prices will effect inflation, export competitiveness, and the country’s… [view entry]

A moment of silence…

JPierce — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:24:57 +0000

Mind the gap.

JPierce — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:35:17 +0000

Gapminder is an organization dedicated to helping understand the world, and particularly environmental issues, by providing interesting tools for statistical analysis. They’re well-known for their Wonderbread-like bubble charts, and brief presentations by director Hans Rosling like the one at right on CO₂ emissions from their “myth demolishing series.”

Coal Country

Tara Holmes — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:08:28 +0000

This week, the highly anticipated documentary “Coal Country” hits theaters. And, surprise, big coal is not thrilled with its release. From mountaintop removal footage to interviews with those most impacted—local residents of Appalachia—Coal Country exposes and breaks down the business of coal mining into its dirty parts. For one, an American Lung Association study shows that 24,000 Americans die each year from from coal-fired plant pollution (grist).

In addition, coal-fired power plants are major emitters of CO₂, NO_X, and SO₂ into the atmosphere; NO_X & SO_X factor into acid rain. Another source of pollution may occur before the coal is even burned. In the controversial practice of mountain-top removal, a devastating process that strips off the living layers of a mountain for the sake of simpler coal extraction, heaps of tailings and overburden… [view entry]

Coen Brothers lampoon ‘clean’ coal claims.

Anthony Butler — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:47:57 +0000

They’ve filmed murder mysteries in the middle of a Minnesota winter, Texas Border country manhunts and CIA shenanigans in the wilds of Washington D.C. Now the two-headed directing team known as the Brothers Coen are taking on the coal industry and their claims of ‘clean coal’ technology. Watch the first in a series of ads that imagine how household cleaning products would perform if they were made by the coal industry.

If the concept behind these ads seems familiar to those who follow the ad industry-it’s from industry hotshop Crispin Porter Bogusky, who was behind the ‘truth’ anti-smoking campaign that garnered so much attention over the last few years. Including this Super Bowl Ad ‘Shards o Glass’

Glad to see that when it comes to environmental messages, our ad industry… [view entry]

Can Coal be Clean? Cambridge-based Greatpoint says Yes

Anthony Butler — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:31:39 +0000

For those of us at Energy 2.0 old enough to remember the last energy crisis, the current talk about Clean Coal, and Coal Gasification feels like deja vu, all over again.

Coal-to-liquids technology isn’t new— according to the WSJ the process was developed in Weimar Germany in the 1920s. South Africa used the technology to escape sanctions during the Apartheid era. Today, coal-rich, oil-poor China is hot for coal-to-liquids.

Closer to home, Cambridge-based Great Point’s coal gasification process, which includes carbon sequestering (not simply for sake of carbon sequesting of course, but for use in enhanced oil recovery) looks pretty good on paper. Depending on how much biomass is used as a feedstock, Great Point claims that its Bluegas technology can actually be net carbon… [view entry]

Wind power employs more people than the coal industry? Soon…

Anthony Butler — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:48:22 +0000

One of our favourite energy blogs–Bright Green Blog–featured a story today comparing the number of jobs in power creation to the number of jobs in the coal industry. Apparently Fortune claims the number of people in the wind power business was greater that entire coal industry (which generates almost 50% of our energy needs). After a torrent of emails, Fortune was forced to correct–the number of people involved in all aspects of wind power is roughly equivalent to the number of coal miners in the US. (85,000 v 81,000).

It's not a new 12 m yacht, but a wind turbine blade manufactured at the Vestas factory in Windsor, CO.

No matter what the final numbers, it brings to light an interesting debate-one that… [view entry]