RIP King Coal

[mongers]

Closure of Kellingley pit brings deep coal mining to an end

Miners at North Yorkshire colliery are working their final shifts as the closure of the pit brings an end to centuries of deep coal mining in Britain.

Owners UK Coal said it would oversee the rundown of the Kellingley mine before the site is redeveloped.

Unions said it was a "very sad day" for the country as well as the industry.

The last 450 miners at the pit are to receive severance packages at 12 weeks of average pay.
....

Full Article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-35124077

Tyr will be sad, these miners too, but perhaps not too many others?

Fitting that it should happen on the heels of the rout of the British steel industry.

[Monoriu]

Fear not.  China still mines a few billion tons of coal per year

[jimmy olsen]

Fear not.  China still mines a few billion tons of coal per year

That's what we fear, and you should too.

[mongers]

The miners stories:

Chris MConnachie, 35 years at the mine

I think the closing is a part of the social history of Britain that is going to be gone now. There is not going to be another industry like this ever again. It is quite an emotional break for people here because it is more of a brotherhood than a job.

I told my grandson that people have respect for coal miners. It is a respectful job. It is a honourable job. I am going to miss it, not the job itself but the people I worked with

Full article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-35115601

* I bolded the bits Mono won't be able to understand.

[Monoriu]

Fear not.  China still mines a few billion tons of coal per year

That's what we fear, and you should too.

There is no point to fear the inevitable

[Admiral Yi]

Inevitable?  The days of coal mining in China are numbered too.

[Monoriu]

Inevitable?  The days of coal mining in China are numbered too.

Yeah, sure, but that number is a really big one.  It took the communists decades to phase out the One Child Policy.  Even now, the Policy still survives.  It is just Two Children Policy instead of One Child.  The coal industry employs millions and benefits some important people.  They can't and won't kill it. 

[Tonitrus]

Fear not.  China still mines a few billion tons of coal per year

That's what we fear, and you should too.

That depends...does the UK need to import a butt-ton of coal from China now? 

We should be moving around from it anyway...and building those fusion plants. 

[Josquius]

Yes, sad. Particularly that they're sealing the mine and ensuring it can never be used again.
I wonder what happened to all that talk a few years ago of gaseous extraction of coal.

Luckily for the miners this one is down near Leeds and there are only a few hundred of them, hopefully they should be able to get a new job without as much trouble as past miners.

[Monoriu]

I think 80% of China's total electricity generation capacity still depends on coal.  That's a really large number and is not going to go away any time soon.  The rest of the 20% is mainly natural gas, nuclear and hydro. 

[Valmy]

I think 80% of China's total electricity generation capacity still depends on coal.  That's a really large number and is not going to go away any time soon.  The rest of the 20% is mainly natural gas, nuclear and hydro. 

Your information is a little out of date.

For last year: http://cleantechnica.com/2015/03/11/non-fossil-fuel-sources-provide-25-chinas-electricity/

Figures from the China Electricity Council (CEC) indicate that non-fossil fuel sources of energy accounted for more than a quarter of the country's electricity generation in 2014.

According to the latest round of statistical data issued by CEC, China's nation-wide electricity generation reached 5550TW hours in 2014, for year-on-year growth of 3.6%. Of this amount, non-fossil fuel generation comprised 1420 TW hours, rising by 19.6% year-on-year.

Non-fossil fuel electricity generation thus comprises approximately 25.6% of nationwide electricity generation in 2014, breaching the 25% threshold for the first time in the PRC's history, and increasing its share of the total by 3.4 percentage points.

Non-fossil fuel generation capacity currently stands at 450GW, comprising approximately a third of China's total installed generation capacity of 1.36TW.

In 2014, China increased its power generation capacity by 103.5GW, 1.28GW more than the addition made in the preceding year. Of this added capacity, non-fossil fuel power sources account for over 57GW.

China's chief source of non-fossil energy remains hydropower, installed capacity of which reached 300GW in December for an increase of 7.9% year-on-year.

In 2014, nationwide hydropower generation breached the 1000 TW hour threshold for the first time in history to reach 1070TW hours, rising by 19.7% compared to the preceding year. This sizeable increase was due to favourable conditions in key hydropower regions during 2014's high-water season, compared to a poor showing the previous year.

Hydropower investment nonetheless fell sharply in 2014, plunging 21.5% year-on-year to 96 billion yuan. While hydropower capacity increased by 21 GW, this expansion was nonetheless 9.11 GW less than the amount added during 2013.

The inland plateau provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan remains the centers of new hydropower for geographic reasons, adding 16.84GW of hydropower capacity in 2014, and accounting for 77.1% of the nationwide increase.

In stark contrast to the sharp decline in spending on hydropower, wind power and solar power investment both saw significant gains.

In 2014 total investment in wind power surpassed spending in solar power, conventional thermal power plants, and nuclear power for the first time in history, hitting a total of 99.3 billion yuan for a year-on-year rise of 52.8%. This surge in spending, largely due to the anticipation of changes in policies for the pricing of grid connections, made wind power the one segment of China's energy sector which received the greatest amount of investment in 2014.

China created 20.72 GW in new grid-connected wind power capacity in 2014 – the first time the annual capacity expansion surpassed 20 GW, and 5.85GW more than the amount added in the preceding year.

As of the end of December, China's nationwide grid-connected wind capacity stood at 95.81 GW, for a year on year increase of 25.6%.

China's inner and northern provinces, including Gansu, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Ningxia, Hebei and Yunnan, remain the chief centers of wind power in the country, each adding in excess of 1GW in grid-connected wind power capacity. Inner Mongolia and Gansu in particular have emerged as stalwart sources of wind power for China, with grid-installed capacity of 20.7GW and 10.08GW respectively.

Despite China's ongoing push for expanded wind power capacity, usage hours for wind power installations fell by 120 hours last year to 1905 hours. Nationwide grid-connected wind power generation nonetheless posted a year-on-year gain of 12.2%, to reach 156.3 TW hours.

China's grid-connected solar power capacity also posted an impressive increase in 2014, rising by 67.0% year-on-year to reach 26.52GW by the end of December 2014. Nationwide grid-connected solar power generation reached 23.11 TW hours in 2014, for a year-on-year increase of 170.8%.

As with wind power, China's inner and northern provinces continue to dominate when it comes to solar power, with Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang hosting 5.17GW, 4.11GW and 3.76GW of capacity respectively, Inner Mongolia more than 2GW, and Ningxia and Hebei each over 1GW.

Despite the addition of 5 new nuclear reactors last year comprising 5.47 GW of generating capacity, China's investment in nuclear power fell by 13.8% last year to 56.9 billion yuan. As of the end of December China was host to 19.88GW of installed nuclear power capacity, for a year-on-year increase of 36.1%.

Nationwide nuclear power generation in 2014 was 126.2 TW hours, for a year-on-year increase of 13.2% Usage times fell 385 hours year-on-year to 7489 hours on average.

So 4130 TW hours in Oil + Coal + Natural Gas(74.4%)

1070 TW hours in hydro (19.3%)

23.11 TW hours in Solar (0.41%)

156.3 TW hours in Wind (2.81%)

126.2 TW hours in Nuclear (2.27%)

Though I cannot help but notice there are about 44 TW hours left out

But I don't read chinese so I cannot check out the source material linked: http://www.wusuobuneng.com/archives/17665

Sounds like Coal as a percentage of electrical generation is on the decline. China has great wind resources and appears to be developing them, which makes sense. Wind is pretty cheap if you got it.

[Tonitrus]

Though I cannot help but notice there are about 44 TW hours left out

That is because using political prisoners in hamster wheels is a classified project.

[Monoriu]

Though I cannot help but notice there are about 44 TW hours left out

That is because using political prisoners bureaucrats in hamster wheels is a classified project.

Fixed 

[Monoriu]

I think 80% of China's total electricity generation capacity still depends on coal.  That's a really large number and is not going to go away any time soon.  The rest of the 20% is mainly natural gas, nuclear and hydro. 

Your information is a little out of date.

For last year: http://cleantechnica.com/2015/03/11/non-fossil-fuel-sources-provide-25-chinas-electricity/

Figures from the China Electricity Council (CEC) indicate that non-fossil fuel sources of energy accounted for more than a quarter of the country's electricity generation in 2014.

According to the latest round of statistical data issued by CEC, China's nation-wide electricity generation reached 5550TW hours in 2014, for year-on-year growth of 3.6%. Of this amount, non-fossil fuel generation comprised 1420 TW hours, rising by 19.6% year-on-year.

Non-fossil fuel electricity generation thus comprises approximately 25.6% of nationwide electricity generation in 2014, breaching the 25% threshold for the first time in the PRC's history, and increasing its share of the total by 3.4 percentage points.

Non-fossil fuel generation capacity currently stands at 450GW, comprising approximately a third of China's total installed generation capacity of 1.36TW.

In 2014, China increased its power generation capacity by 103.5GW, 1.28GW more than the addition made in the preceding year. Of this added capacity, non-fossil fuel power sources account for over 57GW.

China's chief source of non-fossil energy remains hydropower, installed capacity of which reached 300GW in December for an increase of 7.9% year-on-year.

In 2014, nationwide hydropower generation breached the 1000 TW hour threshold for the first time in history to reach 1070TW hours, rising by 19.7% compared to the preceding year. This sizeable increase was due to favourable conditions in key hydropower regions during 2014's high-water season, compared to a poor showing the previous year.

Hydropower investment nonetheless fell sharply in 2014, plunging 21.5% year-on-year to 96 billion yuan. While hydropower capacity increased by 21 GW, this expansion was nonetheless 9.11 GW less than the amount added during 2013.

The inland plateau provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan remains the centers of new hydropower for geographic reasons, adding 16.84GW of hydropower capacity in 2014, and accounting for 77.1% of the nationwide increase.

In stark contrast to the sharp decline in spending on hydropower, wind power and solar power investment both saw significant gains.

In 2014 total investment in wind power surpassed spending in solar power, conventional thermal power plants, and nuclear power for the first time in history, hitting a total of 99.3 billion yuan for a year-on-year rise of 52.8%. This surge in spending, largely due to the anticipation of changes in policies for the pricing of grid connections, made wind power the one segment of China's energy sector which received the greatest amount of investment in 2014.

China created 20.72 GW in new grid-connected wind power capacity in 2014 – the first time the annual capacity expansion surpassed 20 GW, and 5.85GW more than the amount added in the preceding year.

As of the end of December, China's nationwide grid-connected wind capacity stood at 95.81 GW, for a year on year increase of 25.6%.

China's inner and northern provinces, including Gansu, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Ningxia, Hebei and Yunnan, remain the chief centers of wind power in the country, each adding in excess of 1GW in grid-connected wind power capacity. Inner Mongolia and Gansu in particular have emerged as stalwart sources of wind power for China, with grid-installed capacity of 20.7GW and 10.08GW respectively.

Despite China's ongoing push for expanded wind power capacity, usage hours for wind power installations fell by 120 hours last year to 1905 hours. Nationwide grid-connected wind power generation nonetheless posted a year-on-year gain of 12.2%, to reach 156.3 TW hours.

China's grid-connected solar power capacity also posted an impressive increase in 2014, rising by 67.0% year-on-year to reach 26.52GW by the end of December 2014. Nationwide grid-connected solar power generation reached 23.11 TW hours in 2014, for a year-on-year increase of 170.8%.

As with wind power, China's inner and northern provinces continue to dominate when it comes to solar power, with Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang hosting 5.17GW, 4.11GW and 3.76GW of capacity respectively, Inner Mongolia more than 2GW, and Ningxia and Hebei each over 1GW.

Despite the addition of 5 new nuclear reactors last year comprising 5.47 GW of generating capacity, China's investment in nuclear power fell by 13.8% last year to 56.9 billion yuan. As of the end of December China was host to 19.88GW of installed nuclear power capacity, for a year-on-year increase of 36.1%.

Nationwide nuclear power generation in 2014 was 126.2 TW hours, for a year-on-year increase of 13.2% Usage times fell 385 hours year-on-year to 7489 hours on average.

So 4130 TW hours in Oil + Coal + Natural Gas(74.4%)

1070 TW hours in hydro (19.3%)

23.11 TW hours in Solar (0.41%)

156.3 TW hours in Wind (2.81%)

126.2 TW hours in Nuclear (2.27%)

Though I cannot help but notice there are about 44 TW hours left out

But I don't read chinese so I cannot check out the source material linked: http://www.wusuobuneng.com/archives/17665

Sounds like Coal as a percentage of electrical generation is on the decline. China has great wind resources and appears to be developing them, which makes sense. Wind is pretty cheap if you got it.

Wiki says, in 2014, total electricity production in China was 5,583 TWh.  Coal accounted for 4,354, or about 78%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China

[Eddie Teach]

Though I cannot help but notice there are about 44 TW hours left out

That is because using political prisoners in hamster wheels is a classified project.

I had the same thought. Well, not hamster wheels, but these things: