Posted on 12/11/2013 5:47:52 AM PST by thackney
Southeast Asia's power sector will tilt away from gas to use more coal by the end of this decade, chipping away at demand for liquefied natural gas as the region of more than 600 million people tries to cut costs to meet soaring electricity needs.
With a wave of LNG projects due to come online this decade, this shift in consumption from a region long expected to be a key growth market could help take some of the heat out of rising Asian prices of the cleaner fuel.
Gas prices in Asia are about five times more expensive than in the United States, driven by demand for LNG from countries such as Japan and South Korea - whose nuclear power sectors are in crisis, and China, where stringent pollution control measures are driving a switch from dirtier coal.
Demand for more coal could also help lift flagging prices of the fuel by at least partially compensating for China's move to cleaner energy sources.
Currently coal accounts for a third of Southeast Asia's energy mix and gas for 44 percent, with the bulk supplied by the region's own gas reserves, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which formulates energy policy for industrialised countries.
"People in this region keep talking about green growth, but when I look at the numbers, the growth is not green. It is black as coal," said Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist.
Power generation capacity in Southeast Asia is set to rise by 50 percent during the current decade, of which more than half will be coal-fired and only about a quarter will be gas-fired, the IEA said, indicating slow growth in LNG imports.
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
Take that, Algore!
Reliable cheap electricity is an absolute requirement to alleviate miserable poverty and to ensure political stability. Coal is the only pragmatic way to generate that electricity in most of Asia. If Greenpeace takes its act to China to protest coal, their recent experience in Russia will seem like an after school detention after they deal with the Chinese.
What kind of quality is available in SE Asia coal reserves ?
Just how can we convince them that Ethanol will save their souls?
Americans bought the idea.
Chinese coal mines are working to capacity and many are very unsafe. The Chinese import huge amounts of coal,much of it from Australia and the amount despite the pollution will only increase. The Chinese have made a huge on paper “commitment” to nuclear energy but thus far they have not been able to open new nuclear facilities. The scarcity of trained experienced personnel is a huge bottleneck.
As expected the quality varies from region to region. A softer brown coal is available as well as better quality coking coal. It is the latter that is sought after by industry.
Wikipedia search, coal quality south east asia.
I’ve read that Indonesian coal is high quality (low sulfur, high BTUs.)
Yes, For certain poor countries need coal however messy it can be.
Now that's the old "can-do" attitude that we used to have. In the same decade, Obama will continue shutting down our coal-fired plants and will build more eagle-choppers.
Wonder if this [thread you posted the other day] is part of their plan for cheaper fuel?
Dump regulation on our coal industry, make it impractical to burn here, and coal producers will fire-sale their product at bargain basement prices to places in the world where they have ZERO emission controls.
Boy, that was sure helpful!
If you really care about the planet, educate yourself in market economics, please!
They must also have shale reserves.
They should pursue that and skip coal.
What is this, the Victorian era?
Their pollution drifts here and settles in our valleys. In Denver, 80% of our brown winter haze is from outside Denver.
China is building dozens of coal-fired power plants, and we’re supposed to believe that China is cutting back on its carbon footprint? I don’t think so.
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