Posted on 02/20/2019 8:38:04 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
With data and modelling from almost 8,000 coal power plants, researchers present the most comprehensive global picture to date of climate and human health impacts from coal power generation.
To estimate where action is most urgently required, the research group led by Stefanie Hellweg from ETH Zurich's Institute of Environmental Engineering modelled and calculated the undesired side effects of coal power for each of the 7,861 power plant units in the world.
"More than half of the health effects can be traced back to just one tenth of the power plants. These power plants should be upgraded or shut down as quickly as possible," says Christopher Oberschelp, the lead author of the study.
The global picture of coal power production shows that the gap between privileged and disadvantaged regions is widening.
Reducing the negative health effects of coal power generation should be a global priority: "But further industrialisation, especially in China and India, poses the risk of aggravating the situation instead," write the researchers led by Hellweg in their article.
The initial investment costs for the construction of a coal power plant are high, but the subsequent operating costs are low. Power plant operators thus have an economic interest in keeping their plants running for a long time. "The best option is therefore to not build any new coal power plants. From a health and environment perspective, we should move away from coal and towards natural gas -- and in the long term, towards renewable energy sources," says Oberschelp.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
I used to think my daddy was a black man
With script enough to buy the company store
But now he goes to town with empty pockets
And his face is white as a February snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jF8QgyW3VA
China
I think what they are trying to say is that the "privileged" regions use anti-pollution measures on their coal-burning power plants, while the "disadvantaged" regions prefer not to.
This is somehow the fault of the "privileged" regions, although the pollution isn't coming from them.
Why am I not surprised?
No doubt all the offending plants are in the US but none in China ...
The world is suffering from and EPOCH (literally) level CO2 drought.
Given the high cost of pollution controls at coal-fired power plants (removing particulates, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, and heavy metals), I can see coal burning for electrical generation coming to an end by 2050-2055.
One global impact of coal power is mercury poisoning.
I spoke last week with a small company in South West Virginia that manufactures very specialized conveyor parts primarily for coal mines. I was happy to see their engineer because companies like his were squeezed to death or near death by the Obama war on coal.
He said business was improving but not yet back to the good ol days
Without reliable cheap electricity, there is grinding poverty, political and social unrest. Without coal, there is no reliable cheap electricity in most places.
US aid to India: ~$100 million.
~$6million of which is to ‘green the grid’.
How about the US “invest” in India? The worst 10 coal plants in India are upgraded to more modern standards of efficiency and reduced emissions, and the US gets paid for the upgrade via selling the power?
Win Win?
More coal fired power plants have been shut down in Trumps two years than during Obama's 8 years
All coal is is ancient sunlight converted to plant material and compressed into coal. So when you burn coal, you are releasing ancient Solar energy.
So what’s the problem?
All the watermelon Marxists should love the energy industry but they don't because it raises the standard of living to high for all of the wrong people. It is hard to get a revolution going when the masses they claim to love are too well fed, too warm, and too happy.
Well let’s turn all coal power plants off TODAY! Let’s see how the Climate Change Fear Mongers fare after that!!!
Burn dung, not coal. (Never mind that Tom Steyer made millions in the coal business. You don’t hear Obammy’s half bro in Kenya complaining.. as he shivers in his mud lined hut.)
Coal: Still the most efficient fuel, by energy-unit, known to mankind.
aging units replaced by larger and more efficient units.
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