Student Post: Old King Coal: Where is the Innovation?

The process of extracting energy out of coal to create electricity has remained fairly static since its inception. Coal is ignited which boils water which turns to steam which then turns the blades on a turbine. The process is quite inefficient with a large amount of heat produced by the coal being lost. The process also remains extremely "dirty" and harmful to the health of those living nearby and ultimately the health of all those that inhabit this planet as the undesirable particles increase their density in our air. Why is it that the energy industry, especially the coal industry, is so slow moving when it comes to improving efficiency and developing better technologies that don't have such adverse effects on the environment? How is it that a technology, a critical one at that, that has been around for over 100 years still looks almost identical to itself upon inception when things like computers, cellular phones, cars, medical advancements and countless other technologies have come so far?

Coal is one of the cheapest and most abundant resources available to provide for our country's and the world's ever growing energy demands. It is relatively cheap to mine. It has become easier and quicker to transport to power plants and it is abundant. Because of these factors, the final product is cheap for the consumers. We enjoy cheap energy. We have grown ever dependent on electricity and there will likely not be a major change to our habits.
What about the coal industry and the energy industry in general that has prevented it from evolving over time? The book discusses the early days of coal plants in London. The city would regularly become enveloped in thick smoke from the nearby coal plants. It took numerous deaths, deaths directly attributable to the plants and the waste products coming out of their stacks, before regulations came into play. Now, because of those regulations and similar ones made in the US, the undesirable byproducts of burning coal are not so readily visible. That is not to say we are necessarily burning the coal more efficiently or reducing the amount of harmful products being pumped out of the factories. Essentially, we are just doing a better job of hiding the effects from plain sight.

The problem with coal is essentially two-fold: 1) we demand cheap reliable electricity and 2) we already have such a reliance on the product. In order to shift away from coal or to reduce the amount we burn would require vast lifestyle changes by the major users of electricity. Coal accounts for such a large percentage of what makes up the world's electricity portfolio and there are either no viable alternatives (solar and wind) or no desirable alternatives (nuclear).

The coal industry is in a pretty solid position of power and influence in this country and worldwide. There really is no incentive for them to explore much innovation because they understand that the reliance on it is too great and the adverse health effects are difficult to directly attribute to it for us to completely cut our ties.