Page 26 - Solar Power in Building Design The Engineer's Complete Design Resource

xxiv INTRODUCTION

Under the advertising slogan of Opportunity Returns, the coal industry in the United
States has recently attempted to convey an unsubstantiated message to the public that
a new clean coal gasification technology, assumed to be superclean, is on the horizon
to provide safe energy for the next 250 years. Whatever the outcome of the promised
technology, at present coal-fired electric power generation plant construction is on the
rise and currently 120 power generation plants are under construction.
So-called clean coal integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology
converts coal into synthetic gas, which is supposed to be as clean as natural gas and
10 percent more efficient when used to generate electricity. The technology is expected
to increase plant power efficiency by 10 percent, produce 50 percent less solid waste,
and reduce water pollution by 40 percent. Even with all these coal power energy produc-
tion improvements, the technology will remain a major source of pollution.

Coal Power Generation Industry Facts

■ By the year 2030 it is estimated that coal-fired electric power generation will represent
a very large portion of the world’s power and provide 1,350,000 megawatts (MW) of
electric energy, which in turn will inject 572 billion tons of CO into the atmos-
2
phere, which will be equal to the pollution generated over the past 250 years.
■ In the United States it takes 20 lb of coal by weight to generate sufficient energy
requirements per person per day. When totaled, it represents approximately 1 billion
tons of coal. The percent of coal-based energy production in the United States will
be 50 percent, that for China 40 percent, and that for India 10 percent.
■ By the year 2030 the world energy demand is projected to be doubled.
■ The worldwide coal resource is estimated to be 1 trillion tons, and the United States
holds 25 percent of the total resource or about 270 billion tons. China has 75 billion
tons of coal, which is expected to provide 75 years of coal-based electric energy.
■ The consequences of cheap electric power generated from coal will require large
national expenditures to mitigate environmental pollution and related public health
problems that will translate into medical bills for treating asthma, emphysema,
heart attacks, and cancer. The effects of pollution will also be extended to global
ecological demise and genetic changes in plant and animal life.
According to a study conducted by Princeton University, the effects of U.S. coal-
fired electric power generation plants on public health would add $130 billion per
megawatt-hour of energy. At present the average cost of one megawatt of power is
about $120.
■ The Kyoto Protocol, ratified by 162 nations except the United States and Australia,
calls for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent by 2012. China and devel-
oping nations like India, which are exempt, will most likely generate twice the
expected amount of atmospheric pollution.