{"id":3325,"date":"2016-03-24T17:07:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T22:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=3325"},"modified":"2016-03-26T07:13:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T12:13:54","slug":"coal-digestion-ctd-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/03\/24\/coal-digestion-ctd-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal Digestion, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s latest coal consumption numbers<\/a> come in via NewScientist<\/strong><\/em> (5 March 2016):<\/p>\n

CHINA is surging ahead in its switch to renewables and away from coal \u2013 a move it claims will allow the nation to surpass its carbon emissions targets.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s solar and wind energy capacity soared last year by 74 and 34 per cent respectively compared with 2014, according to figures issued by China\u2019s National Bureau<\/a> of Statistics this week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, its consumption of coal dropped by 3.7 per cent, with imports down by a substantial 30 per cent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Digging into that link at Climate Home<\/strong><\/em> is this disturbing, confusing tidbit<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The government had investments of $628 billion in the green economy planned up to 20301<\/span><\/span>, Xie said, but\u00a0admitted more support needed to be directed towards emissions data reporting, which experts say is unreliable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a question of ability \u2026 At every level of statistics there are exaggerations added to the data. Everyone knows that, and everyone is anxious [to fix it],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have set up a system to calculate and monitor energy saving and emission reduction, and are gradually improving it.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, it appears it’s good news coming out of the second<\/del> most populous country in the world – and one of the biggest polluters.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the United States is also making progress, according<\/a> to the Energy Information Agency<\/del>\u00a0Administration\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(EIA<\/strong><\/em>):<\/p>\n

EIA estimates that U.S. coal production for February 2016 was 54 million short tons (MMst), a 4 MMst (7%) decrease from the previous month and 18 MMst less than in February 2015. Forecast coal production is expected to decrease by 111 MMst (12%) in 2016, which would be the largest annual percentage decline since 1958. In 2016, forecast Appalachian and Western region production declines by 9% and 17%, respectively, and Interior region production falls by 4%. Total coal production is expected to stabilize in 2017, increasing by 16 MMst (2%).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, I am wary of taking\u00a0production as an accurate proxy for consumption, i.e., take care when reading government reports. Further down the page is the information of interest:<\/p>\n

EIA estimates that coal consumption decreased by 13% in 2015, mainly as a result of a 13% drop in electric power sector consumption. Coal consumption in the electric power sector is forecast to decline by 29 MMst (4%) in 2016 as a result of mild winter weather and continuing competition with natural gas generation. Electric power sector coal consumption is forecast to increase by 10 MMst (1%) in 2017 primarily because of rising natural gas prices. Retirements of coal-fired power plants, because of increased competition with natural gas generation and the industry response to the implementation of MATS, reduce coal-fired generation capacity in the forecast period.<\/p>\n

\"chart\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the estimated fall in consumption in 2015 is encouraging, that it’s due to milder weather is a little discouraging; it’d be better to know it came from retirement of coal-fired plants. This EIA page<\/a> covers power plant retirements:<\/p>\n

\"graph<\/p>\n

Source: <\/strong>U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n
Nearly 18 gigawatts (GW) of electric generating capacity was retired in 2015, a relatively high amount compared with recent years. More than 80% of the retired capacity was conventional steam coal. The coal-fired generating units retired in 2015 tended to be older and smaller in capacity than the coal generation fleet that continues to operate.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n

Coal’s share of electricity generation has been falling, largely because of competition with natural gas. Environmental regulations affecting power plants have also played a role. About 30% of the coal capacity that retired in 2015 occurred in April, which is when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards<\/a> (MATS) rule went into effect. Some coal plants applied for and received one-year extensions, meaning that many of the coal retirements expected in 2016 will likely also occur in April. Several plants have received additional one-year extensions beyond April 2016 based on their role in ensuring regional system reliability.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So … progress is made. Is it enough? Probably not.<\/p>\n

But then, I’m a proud member of the Instant Gratification Generation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s latest coal consumption numbers come in via NewScientist (5 March 2016): CHINA is surging ahead in its switch to renewables and away from coal \u2013 a move it claims will allow the nation to surpass its carbon emissions targets. The country\u2019s solar and wind energy capacity soared last year \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3325"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3338,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3325\/revisions\/3338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}