Reducing coal-fired power generation will also play a central role in meeting global climate goals.While coal plants are responsible for 30% of emissions from the energy sector, reductions in their CO2 output make up 60% of the cuts between 2018-2040 in the IEA “In that scenario, coal-fired power generation falls by 6%, on average, every year for the next two decades.
Published by Profit from additional features with an Employee Account Topics Receive a Daily or Weekly summary of the most important articles direct to your inbox, just enter your email below:This would amount to a reduction of around 300 terawatt hours (TWh), more than the combined total output from coal in Germany, Spain and the UK last year.The analysis is based on monthly electricity sector data from around the world for the first seven to 10 months of the year, depending on data availability in each country.The global decline means an economic hit for coal plants due to reduced average running hours, which are set to reach an all-time low.The record drop also raises the prospect of slowing After decades of near-uninterrupted growth (blue line in the chart, below), our analysis suggests global electricity production from coal is on track for a record fall in 2019 (red bar, lower panel).Generation for the year is projected to come in 3% below the level in 2018, a reduction of some 300TWh.In the past three and a half decades, only two other years have seen declining coal power output: a fall of 148TWh in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis; and a 217TWh cut in 2015 following a The reasons for the historic projected drop in coal-fired generation in 2019 vary from country to country, but include increased electricity generation from renewables, nuclear and gas, as well as slowing or negative power demand growth.Falling demand is particularly clear in Japan and South Korea (part of OECD Asia Oceania, bottom left), where exports have dropped sharply.
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The United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) regularly publishes a report on world consumption for most types of primary energy resources. Latest in:
In North America, about 60% of the fall in coal came from switching to gas, as coal plants closed and new gas plants opened (top right).Over the preceding two years 2017-2018, reductions in coal generation in the US and EU have been offset by increases elsewhere, particularly in China.This year, however, the fall in developed economies is accelerating, while coal generation in India and China is slowing sharply, precipitating a global reduction.The country’s demand for coal-fired power depends on the interplay between clean electricity growth and rising demand.
Latest in: China is the largest global consumer of thermal coal, consuming around 3,200 Mt in 2018, a little over half of the global total, and around triple what it was consuming in …