We're facing an energy crisis that is going to require radical solutions to solve. Many countries are ramping up coal-fired electricity generation in response. Is it time for the UK to go for Coal not Cold? A thread (1/n)
Looking first at UK coal reserves and resources. Euracoal has estimated we're sitting on 3,560 million tonnes of hard coal resources & 1,000Mt of lignite. Plus 277Mt of economically recoverable hard coal reserves. Plenty to go at (2/n)
So, what about the benefits of using coal? First, fuel diversification. War in Iran has again demonstrated the fragility of global supply chains, particularly LNG. Using our own coal would give welcome fuel diversification & energy security (3/n)
The case for coal gets stronger when looking at the UK's dwindling firm power capacity in the face of increasing demand. One answer might be new gas plants, but they have an 8-year lead time. Coal plants could be built much quicker to keep the lights on (4/n)
Of course, we should not overlook the fact that the UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world. Using cheap coal to displace expensive renewables will bring down prices (5/n)
The objections to coal have been emissions: CO2, SOx, NOx & particulates. The US has removed the CO2 endangerment finding and China has shown that super-critical and ultra-super-critical coal plants can remove >99.9% of particulates, 99.7% of SOx & >90% of NOx (6/n)
With geo-political events revealing the fragility of supply chains, energy sovereignty has become of paramount importance. With the objections to coal dissipating, it is time for the UK to go for Coal not Cold (7/n)
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