A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing #2: Demand for coal as an energy source

I am a big fan of Little Free Libraries, and recently I came across a book published in 1953, The Big Coal Truck, by Frances R. Norwich.  It's about a boy watching the delivery of coal to an apartment building in an unnamed city, the coal being used for the on-site heating plant/furnace.


I love the illustrations in children's books generally, especially when they illustrate urban matters.

Because we are familiar with how things work now, we aren't so familiar with how things were "back then," in the same way that the youth of today don't know how to use rotary phones.

Into the 1950s, it was not uncommon for houses and apartment buildings to be heated by on-site furnaces powered by coal.

There were also coal yards across DC (and other cities) selling coal, often in areas alongside railroads, but not exclusively.

Recently, I was surprised to come across "shopping bags" from some DC-based coal companies at an antiques store in Maryland.


In fact, my house was constructed in 1929, and still has the coal chute.  At some point, the furnace was  converted to natural gas through a hookup to a bigger gas distribution system.  (Somewhere we still have a piece of ephemera that was on a wall, explaining about using coal.)

This kind of power generation had many deleterious effects on air quality.  And so laws were passed to force people to shift to natural gas and electricity based systems, powered through larger distribution systems rather than on-site energy sources.  And compared to site-based power generation by coal, large scale systems of electricity generation anchored by coal-fired generation plants was better for air quality generally--although not in the area where the power plants were built.

The switch was costly for many.  For example, a few months ago while reading a biography (Don't Call Me Boss: David L. Lawrence: Pittsburgh's Renaissance Mayor) of David Lawrence past mayor of Pittsburgh and Governor of Pennsylvania, I was surprised to see that one of his issues was helping to defray the cost to lower income households of a required changeover to electric or gas powered ovens.  That's stuff we don't even think about today.

Coal for a long time was the cheapest energy source for power generation.  But over time hydroelectricity, oil (usually for peak time generation), natural gas, and nuclear power were added to the mix, which today now includes wind and solar power, the latter moving back to a more site-based power generation paradigm, which in turn alters the economics of power distribution.

With fracking, natural gas has become even cheaper than coal, and power generation firms are shutting down coal generation plants in favor of natural gas generation.  Plus solar and wind sources are further reducing the demand for coal.

As is the more widespread use of LED lighting, which is cutting demand for electricity by up to 10%.

So the Trump Administration's desire to "bring back coal" faces the headwinds of various market forces that are driving the switch.

... not to mention global warming and climate change issues, which the current administration chooses to not believe.

I was blown away recently to read about this in terms of financial investment and risk analysis.  Basically now it's too risky to invest in coal or nuclear plants because it isn't clear given changes in the industry, that a plant will operate long enough to pay back loans.

I can't seem to find the article that I was reading about this, but these shed light on the concept:

-- "The Coal Cost Crossover: 74% Of US Coal Plants Now More Expensive Than New Renewables, 86% By 2025," Forbes Magazine
-- "Global 'collapse' in number of new coal-fired power plants," Guardian

One advantage coal has as a jobs generator is that it is very physical and tangible. Oil and natural gas are mostly distributed by pipeline, especially to power plants, while coal is moved by trains, has to be loaded and unloaded, and then at the plant, loaded into the plant. That takes lots of people, and it's a form of mass production. By contrast, natural gas delivery involves very few people.

One reason that freight railroads are experiencing a decline in business is because of the fall off in the use of coal for power generation ("Coal downturn hits railroads hard," High Country News).