New Coal Plants Will Represent a 2.5 Trillion Dollar Investment.

[NNadir]

$2.5 trillion investment in new coal-fired plants
World coal-fired power generation capacity will rise from 1.3 million MW in 2006, to 1.7 million MW in 2011, and to 2.7 million MW in 2030, according to a new report.

This will require more than 1.7 million MW of new coal-fired construction to account for retirements as well as growth. The investment in these new plants will exceed $2.5 trillion. This is the prediction in the new McIlvaine online continuously updated, Coal-fired Boilers: World Analysis and Forecast...

...China will build an unprecedented number of coal-fired plants in 2005-2011, bringing coal-fired capacity from just under the US capacity now to over twice the US capacity by 2011. This requires an average addition of over 45,000 MW/year. in the short-term. Coal-fired generation additions in 2011-2030 are predicted to average 25,000 MW per year. This will result in coal-fired capacity in 2030 of over one million MW...

...The market for coal-fired boilers in Europe is booming due to greenhouse gas regulatory efforts. There is a rush to build plants prior to 2012. Germany alone is moving forward with 26,000 MW of new coal-fired units. It will retire existing less efficient units to make net gains in CO2 emissions per megawatt...

http://www.engineerlive.com/european-process-engineer/17475/and3625-trillion-investment-in-new-coalfired-plants.thtml

[greenman3610]

1. carbon sequestration is a must

we need a program to begin implementing it
now.

[pstans]

2. Edwards called for that on Friday

John Edwards called for a halt on coal-fired power plants in Marshalltown, where a proposed $1 billion, 600 mw coal-fired power plant is being proposed by Alliant Energy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3319192&mesg_id=3319192

[NNadir]

3. We simply cannot "begin implementing it."

The main problem is that it doesn't work.

[whistle]

4. And these plants will spew billions of pounds of toxic waste and CO2

...and acid rain into the atmosphere with no penalty to their stockholders while U.S. consumers will pay higher electric bills to line their pockets.

[NNadir]

5. The plan to build coal plants is international.

This is not just a US problem. As the article makes clear, both Germany and China are big players in this business.

I call for a coal phase out but it would appear that no one is interested.