On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 10:32:24 GMT, Roger
wrote:

The message
from Mike Tomlinson contains these words:

Maybe the benefits of coal being mined in the country will be seen
again,

I think it will, it's a matter of economics. Imported gas and coal will
rise in price to the point that it becomes economic to re-open our
coalfields, even if the power stations have to have emission scrubbers
installed.

Don't forget that one of the reasons for the decline in coal generation
and the 'dash for gas' is the lesser quantity of CO2 produced for the
same energy output. Coal is not going to make a come-back until the
better options are exhausted.

The dash for gas was purely due to a very localised short term gas
price advantage over other fuel sources. The CO2 released was of
absolutely no concern to any power producer and would have
realistically formed no part in a decision to invest as there were no
economic advantages in doing so (any incentives to go down this route
have only emerged around 3 years ago) The UK's earliest combined cycle
gas fired station commenced generation some 10 years earlier in late
1992.

Yes, in most cases they are much more efficient than 60's and 70's
generation coal and oil fired stations leading to a lower release of
CO2, but gas is a clean fuel that can be burnt far more efficiently in
homes, commercial properties and by industry to directly provide heat
(increasing effective utilisation of that resource by around 50%)

Using it for electricity generation, particularly when it was
abundantly clear that the rate of consumption greatly exceeded the
rate of getting new sources into production was always going to be
very short sighted, but with no one keeping overall control, as long
as the revenues from the taxes associated with abstraction were
flowing no one really cared in government what the hell was going on,
I think the words commonly used by the clueless are "The market will
decide" Unfortunately that, combined with the short term export
market that made some people very rich is now coming back to bite us
in a big way.

Calling gas "a better option" is always going to be an extremely
foolish statement as far as electricity generation is concerned
(unless of course you live in somewhere like Siberia, Algeria or
Libya)



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