Can we really replace coal?

Technologies are being developed like man-made geothermal systems and solar thermal electricity with adequate heat storage that could maintain a constant and reliable supply of electricity but it may take some time before they are ready to replace significant quantities of coal.

The beauty of coal, gas and uranium is that the fuel can be readily stored in its usable form for when we need it, unlike the wind or sunlight. If we could store the electricity produced from the wind and the sun (when it’s available) for later use then the variable supply would be less of a problem. The difficulty is that electricity in any quantity can only be stored as another form of energy (such as chemical or kinetic energy) and this is expensive. We seem a long way from achieving adequate quantities of cost effective electricity storage.

The idea of renewable energy powering our electricity networks alone anytime soon is a fantasy for the vast majority of the world. Most people in western society don’t want to return to a 19th century lifestyle when electricity was expensive and not always available while they wait for the right technologies to be developed. Getting rid of reliable electricity would probably fix that mechanisation problem that the luddites fought so hard against all those years ago. I doubt it will save many jobs though.

If a country doesn’t have adequate gas or is not prepared to use nuclear power then coal is the only realistic option for electricity generation until technology catches up. So thank goodness coal is cheap - and still abundant.