Green Daily

Coal is a dirty and dangerous fuel, but at least it's always been cheap and plentiful. Now as developing nations and China in particular ramp up their energy consumption, the days of inexpensive coal may be coming to an end.

The Wall Street Journal reports that coal prices have gone through the roof in recent months, hitting all time highs last week in markets around the world. The jump is driven in some measure by unusual events like floods in Australia and blizzards in China, but it's also a simple case of demand starting to outstrip supply.

China, long a coal exporter, is becoming a net importer of the black stuff, in large part to meet the booming demand for electricity (almost 80% of China's electricity comes from coal-fired plants.) India is also starting to use more coal, and other developing nations aren't far behind.

Implications? We're not really likely to run out of coal anytime soon - it's as common as dirt around the world, which is why it's so popular. However, the cost is rising precisely because of the huge growth in demand, and from a greenhouse gas point of view, more coal burning is pretty nasty ("clean" coal propaganda notwithstanding.) One good thing that could come out of the price jump is that alternative energy sources like solar and wind start to look more attractive on a dollar per KWh basis - similar to the recent fascination with alternatively fueled cars as a result of skyhigh oil prices. Or we could just mine more of the stuff til the price drops, spew CO2 into the atmosphere and watch the planet melt. Either way is good.

via [Green Tech Blog]