Multiple daily posts? You must be Sleepless in Svalbard with the 24 hour sun. Don’t leave town without your rifle for polar bear protection. Been there; done that!
I'll cut Steve some slack given his location and busy travel schedule, but he missed an important comparison.
> China - planning to ADD 100 gigawatts of coal generation
> TOTAL electricity generation capacity in the US (2023, EIA): Less than 1,200 gigawatts
In total, China has 3,400 gigawatts of capacity in place as of 2024 per the EIA.
I don't think it has penetrated the psyche of Americans or our leadership class how vast the Chinese manufacturing and energy sector is relative to the US economy. In 2012 their capacity was comparable to the US current generation capacity. Just over a decade later, it is reaching 3X the US.
At this current pace, it won't take long for China to replicate the production advantage America possessed in the decade after WW II.
Inevitable. My dissertation was on characterizing a particular aspect of coals, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time studying fuel production & use. Coal is an inefficient, dirty fuel, quite inferior to petroleum and natural gas (although way more efficient than so-called renewables). But…. We have a lot of it throughout the world. And nothing beats being able to stay warm enough, travel as needed, cook our food, and clean our water.
Coal to liquid fuel technology was invented by Germans and used for much of the early Blitzkrieg. When the Allies bombed the Nazi synfuel plants, Adolf turned towards Baku on the Caspian, leading to his defeat at Stalingrad. Gas and diesel from coal is considerably more expensive than liquid petroleum, but if coal is what you've got...
Multiple daily posts? You must be Sleepless in Svalbard with the 24 hour sun. Don’t leave town without your rifle for polar bear protection. Been there; done that!
Oh yes, I got The Talk about not straying beyond city limits without anti-bear technology (aka, a gun or more).
Meanwhile, the US continues to mothball and scrap coal plants before their time. We still have no coherent energy policy.
I'll cut Steve some slack given his location and busy travel schedule, but he missed an important comparison.
> China - planning to ADD 100 gigawatts of coal generation
> TOTAL electricity generation capacity in the US (2023, EIA): Less than 1,200 gigawatts
In total, China has 3,400 gigawatts of capacity in place as of 2024 per the EIA.
I don't think it has penetrated the psyche of Americans or our leadership class how vast the Chinese manufacturing and energy sector is relative to the US economy. In 2012 their capacity was comparable to the US current generation capacity. Just over a decade later, it is reaching 3X the US.
At this current pace, it won't take long for China to replicate the production advantage America possessed in the decade after WW II.
Inevitable. My dissertation was on characterizing a particular aspect of coals, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time studying fuel production & use. Coal is an inefficient, dirty fuel, quite inferior to petroleum and natural gas (although way more efficient than so-called renewables). But…. We have a lot of it throughout the world. And nothing beats being able to stay warm enough, travel as needed, cook our food, and clean our water.
Coal to liquid fuel technology was invented by Germans and used for much of the early Blitzkrieg. When the Allies bombed the Nazi synfuel plants, Adolf turned towards Baku on the Caspian, leading to his defeat at Stalingrad. Gas and diesel from coal is considerably more expensive than liquid petroleum, but if coal is what you've got...
I love the helmet!
So how good can we be at burning coal economically these days?
When will you stop calling it “fossil” fuel? Dead animal fossils have nothing to do with it.
He uses it the way it’s used, which is non-literal term for nonrenewable.