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Coal: For clean, affordable electricity

May 5, 2008 12:15 am

RICHMOND--

We cannot go on squandering limited natural gas supplies on unlimited burning for electricity production when coal is so much more economical. Nor can we expect to see more nuclear power any time soon, not if Congress continues to drag its feet in appropriating funds for loan guarantees to support construction of new nuclear plants. These nuclear plants, which are estimated to cost at least $7 billion each, are not expected to begin commercial operation until 2016, at the earliest.

Nor can we deface our Virginia coastline and countryside with towering wind turbines on a massive scale, when coal plants require much less space and are so much more reliable. While coal provides more than 50 percent of the electricity used in Virginia and nationally, renewable sources such as solar and wind supply less than 2 percent and supply only peak power because of their unreliability.

Coal plants produce "base-load" electricity, the power that is available around the clock, to keep traffic lights on and household appliances performing when the button is pushed. This is beyond the ability of solar and wind energy, which are available only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing at the necessary velocity. Wind is an intermittent source of electricity, as Texans recently discovered when the electricity grid had to cut power to some offices and factories when wind speed dropped--and with it, electricity produced by the state's wind farms.

Advocates of renewable energy shudder at the very mention of coal, arguing that it can never be made acceptable from an environmental standpoint. But contrary to the assertions of environmentalists, coal is neither dead nor dying.

In Virginia and around the country, power plants are using coal more efficiently, boosting output while reducing emissions. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, coal plants are 33 percent less polluting than in 1980 when I began shipping coal to what was then Virginia Power. New advances in clean-coal technology, particularly the possibility for carbon capture and storage, are achievable. As the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded in a major study on the future of coal worldwide, "We believe that coal use will increase under any foreseeable scenario because it is cheap and abundant."

So we are going to build more coal plants, and there is no good reason not to begin soon. Dominion Power is gearing up to build a power plant in Southwest Virginia that will use clean-coal technology to improve efficiency and reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Even with conservation, Virginia is approximately 2,000 megawatts short of what is required when demand for electricity peaks. The proposed plant will help close this supply gap.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy is giving high priority to research aimed at developing a practical way to capture and store coal-plant emissions of carbon dioxide that are linked to climate change. DOE's proposed budget for fiscal 2009 earmarks nearly $500 million for large-scale demonstrations of carbon storage, in which carbon dioxide is compressed into a liquid and injected deep underground into an oil field or salt cavern. Carbon sequestration, as this process is called, has been used for many years to recover oil and gas that otherwise cannot be liberated using conventional means.

In many respects, technology is the easy part. The challenge is to make carbon capture and storage possible at minimum cost and without economic disruption. Achieving solutions on a large scale will take international cooperation involving all countries that use large amounts of coal.

The great advantage of coal is its availability and its relatively low cost. With natural gas prices continuing to rise and more gas coming from overseas, adding to its cost, the favorable economics of coal is its virtue.

Energy security, not independence, is another factor to consider. The coal used for electricity generation in Virginia is produced in central Appalachia. Some of it is still mined in Virginia, and none of it is subject to the whims of foreign cartels or other interference. The United States has approximately 270 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves. America's thermal coal demand is approximately 1 billion tons per year. Even accounting for growth, the reserve base can meet America's needs well into the next century.

Now more than ever, we must do everything possible to keep Virginia's economy strong. It won't happen if we fail to provide enough base-load electricity for households, businesses, and industries, or if we avoid power-plant projects that take patience to complete. Only then can we have a stable economy, achieve our environmental goals, and improve our energy security.

W. Douglas Blackburn Jr. consults with utilities and mining companies on the coal industry.