4 ms·

What I find even more absurd is the United States, despite producing a huge amount of natural gas, consumes more coal per-capita than Germany. https://www.stat

by xxgreg 8y ago

What I find even more absurd is the United States, despite producing a huge amount of natural gas, consumes more coal per-capita than Germany. https://www.statista.com/statistics/604946/per-capita-coal-consumption-in-selected-countries/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/604946/per-capita-coal-c... Edit: sorry that link got pay walled. Try this one. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-per-capita https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-per-capi... This is 2015 data - and the US has narrowed the gap since.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
lenticular 8y ago
The good news is that coal is now more expensive than gas, and even more the solar and wind in high insolation/windy areas. Unfortunately, since coal is no longer competitive, the Trump administration has been talking about subsidizing it.
danielvf 8y ago
Coal [electricity] in the US is down to 60% of what it was ten years ago. Since the second half of 2015, the US has been generating more electricity with natural gas than with coal. The current difference between them is larger than the entirety of US solar production. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_1_01 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...
- xxgreg 8y ago
  Coal isn't just used for electricity generation. If you look at the 2017 BP energy report numbers the US is still about 20% above Germany in coal consumption per capita. (Not sure when 2018 numbers come out.) I'm glad to see the US is reducing emissions. However ideally it wouldn't be due to swapping one fossil fuel for another. Makes you wonder what will happen if the prices of coal/gas flip again.
  - danielvf 8y ago
    The US is adding a lot of solar generation - in just the last two years our solar electricity generation increased by more than the total solar output of Germany.
antisthenes 8y ago
And what's up with Japan's steadily rising use of coal energy? They are still a top 5 world economy.
- xxgreg 8y ago
  The usual answer is "because Fukushima shut down the nuclear industry, duh". But this is obviously wrong as when looking at the data. Much of the increase was between 2000-2010. I wonder if it's due to the monopoly structures of the energy business shielding them from the changes that the rest of the world has been seeing. I wonder how much of the coal is used for electricity vs steel making etc. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-per-capita https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-per-capi...

by xxgreg 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

lenticular 8y ago

The good news is that coal is now more expensive than gas, and even more the solar and wind in high insolation/windy areas. Unfortunately, since coal is no longer competitive, the Trump administration has been talking about subsidizing it.

danielvf 8y ago

Coal [electricity] in the US is down to 60% of what it was ten years ago. Since the second half of 2015, the US has been generating more electricity with natural gas than with coal. The current difference between them is larger than the entirety of US solar production. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_1_01 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...

xxgreg 8y ago
Coal isn't just used for electricity generation. If you look at the 2017 BP energy report numbers the US is still about 20% above Germany in coal consumption per capita. (Not sure when 2018 numbers come out.) I'm glad to see the US is reducing emissions. However ideally it wouldn't be due to swapping one fossil fuel for another. Makes you wonder what will happen if the prices of coal/gas flip again.
- danielvf 8y ago
  The US is adding a lot of solar generation - in just the last two years our solar electricity generation increased by more than the total solar output of Germany.

antisthenes 8y ago

And what's up with Japan's steadily rising use of coal energy? They are still a top 5 world economy.

xxgreg 8y ago
The usual answer is "because Fukushima shut down the nuclear industry, duh". But this is obviously wrong as when looking at the data. Much of the increase was between 2000-2010. I wonder if it's due to the monopoly structures of the energy business shielding them from the changes that the rest of the world has been seeing. I wonder how much of the coal is used for electricity vs steel making etc. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-per-capita https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-per-capi...