Reserve
something that can be produced at today’s prices with today’s technology
Sequester
to store typically as a part of a subsurface disposal (ex. carbon dioxide)
Coal is cheap because
it’s available
Nearly every major country has
an available domestic coal reserve
Examples of why coal is easy
easy to mine
easy to transport
easy to store
easy to turn into electricity
Cheapest electricity in the world
coal electricity
Affordable electricity makes everything else
more affordable
Biggest benefit of coal
lifting developing countries out of poverty
Downsides of coal
dirty
mining coal can be pretty clean, but in most places, it's dirty and dangerous
burning it produces pollutants and huge volumes of ash
The best coal plants capture some of the pollution but,
most don't, and there are only a few coal plants in the world that capture and sequester some of their CO2
Burning coal produces
significant CO2 emissions
Which type of pollution is generated by burning coal?
ash and carbon dioxide
What causes half of global CO2 emissions
coal