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I think the point is clear. It is foolish to abandon coal as an energy source. Coal is abundant, and as the OP pointed out, it can be stockpiled where it is being used to meet seasonal demand increases.
Thank you for explaining what I thought was the obvious.
Thank you for explaining what I thought was the obvious.
Obvious for anyone other than those who are indoctrinated into the "any energy other than green energy" is evil cult. They are far and wide nowdays. Reality has no bearing on these people. Hell they scream natural gas now not even knowing that the same folks who they supported in going after the coal industry are now going after the nat gas industry. Pure insanity. In the end we will all pay and people will freeze if they get their wish.
We get carried away with all this. For the next years we use gas and coal for a lot of the load. As solar and wind come on line we use them when able. Eventually we get to the point where the peak load and then some is handlable by the clean energy. Then we configure the other sources to cover the rest. For instance hydor plants do not generally need to run during the day. Save the water for the night. Or use excess solar and wind in the daytime to up load water for the night.
I would think you can locally store gas in any desired quantity.
After Japan I don't see nuclear going anywhere.
Once solar costs get below and then well below coal and gas things change radically. 15 years?
I think the point is clear. It is foolish to abandon coal as an energy source. Coal is abundant, and as the OP pointed out, it can be stockpiled where it is being used to meet seasonal demand increases.
Wind and solar as reliable sources are a liberal pipe dream, and are said to be "parasites," because they do not pay into the costs of the network that they attach themselves to. At times, when wind farms are not producing, they are actually draining power from the network that supports them.
Coal fired plants are not the dirty poluters of the atmosphere that they once were, but are efficient, and clean. It is pure folley to talk of shutting down these plants, and the cost to consumers of doing so is very high. If you struggle to pay your energy bills now, wait till your local supplier is forced to shut down the coal plants that are likely the source of your electic power.
The United States burns more than a billion tons of coal each year – that’s 20 pounds of coal for every person in the country, every day.
According to the American Lung Association, 24,000 people a year die prematurely because of pollution from coal-fired power plants. And every year 38,000 heart attacks, 12,000 hospital admissions and an additional 550,000 asthma attacks result from power plant pollution.
Do you know how these statistics are compiled? No one has died from a coal plant written on their death certificate.
They use what is called a linear dose assessment, exposure levels are irrelevant and every particle of pollution is considered equally as dangerous. For example suppose we do a study to get some hard data and have 10 people jump off a 20 foot ladder and 5 of them die. From that data it's assumed that for every 200 feet a population is to fall 5 people are going die from the impact. If 20 people jump off a 10 foot ladder 5 still die. If 40 people jump off a 5 foot ladder 5 still die. If millions jump off a crack in the sidewalk 5 still die from the impact.
As far as the asthma goes I'd like that to address that specifically. Since the 80's we have cut the six most common air pollutants by 63%, in that time we have seen a dramtic rise in asthma cases. If you want my personal opinion look to you home. New building techniques, insulation, Tyvek and all these other things that increase the efficiency of homes also trap indoor air pollutants. We have also seen a shift form the traditional hydronic heating sytems to ducted sytems, these sytems can harbor and easily spread indoor air pollutants inside a home. Last but not least people spend a great deal of more time indoors.... but what do I know....
Feel free to pick any other number on that list, I'll be glad to bury it.
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