Developing & Commercializing Next-generation Coal Technology is Larger Than Ever

Coal’s importance for the U.S. electricity grid has been shrinking for several decades, from supplying more than 50% of the nation’s electricity in 2000 to only 17% this year. It’s in retreat in Europe as well, but those trends defy a bigger global story, one where coal’s importance is larger than ever.

Despite losing its dominant position here, coal remains the world’s primary fuel for electricity generation. For example, three-quarters of the world’s steel is produced with coal. Hundreds of new coal plants are in the pipeline or are already under construction, mostly in Asia. They are feeding the growing energy appetites of rapidly urbanizing and industrializing nations with expanding middle classes. From Vietnam to Bangladesh, India, and China, coal is the energy foundation upon which these economies are thriving and growing.

Investment in coal is happening alongside investment in renewable energy. China, the world’s largest producer of wind and solar power, also accounts for more than half of the world coal consumption. Rather than pivoting away from coal generation, China intends to build 250 gigawatts of new coal capacity to help support the post-coronavirus economic recovery. That capacity is larger than the entire existing U.S. coal fleet.

Coal’s global importance and irreplaceability need to be reflected in our own energy policy. In fact, coal technology should be a focal point of energy research, development, and deployment. The pivot to exorbitantly expensive renewable energy seen in Germany, where electricity has been described as a luxury good, or here at home in California, isn’t going to cut it elsewhere. Don’t expect most nations to abandon their energy assets, be it power plants or their existing electricity grids, to reduce carbon emissions.

The addition of low-emission energy technology will come as a complement to further investment and reliance on fossil fuels, not in place of them. Why? Affordability, security, and reliability remain the foremost energy concerns of most countries.

If coal is here to stay — the data is clear that it is — energy and climate policies need to lean into that reality. The United States, after all, possesses the world’s largest coal reserves. Developing and deploying next-generation, low-emissions coal technologies shouldn’t just be a pillar of a globally replicable approach to emissions reduction. It should be recognized as a tremendous market opportunity.

Important work is being done at the Department of Energy to further carbon capture, utilization, and storage, or CCUS. The CoalFIRST program, designed to develop a new type of modular, nimbler, and near-zero emissions coal plant that can better pair with renewable sources of energy, is also encouraging. But these efforts, while vital, don’t stack up to the scale and need of the challenge.

The U.S. is pouring taxpayer money into energy, but it’s going to all the wrong places. Instead of working to get essential next-generation technologies to commercialization, the majority of taxpayer funding is going to ethanol subsidies and tax credits to build more windmills and solar panels. The renewable energy production tax credit, which has driven the wind boom in this country, needs to be allowed to sunset. It’s time for wind and solar power to stand on their own without taxpayer support. Let’s stop throwing more taxpayer money at mistakes or mature technologies and instead focus on ramping up and commercializing the next generation of technologies we know the world needs, whether it be small modular reactors, grid-scale batteries, or commercially viable CCUS.

Energy realities must be the basis of our energy policy. The energy reality the Green New Dealers seem incapable of acknowledging is that fossil fuels will remain the world’s dominant source of energy for many generations to come. Coal will remain the primary fuel of global industrialization.

U.S. energy leadership won’t be achieved by banning fossil fuels or taxing carbon. Rather, it will be found in the technological breakthroughs that launched the commercial nuclear age and the shale revolution. Developing and commercializing next-generation coal technology is a race the U.S. can and should win.

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