Consumers Put Faith in Clean Coal

That is one of the findings from a recent set of studies conducted by Deloitte.

When asked about the best way to reduce emissions in the future, 60 percent of consumers surveyed put their trust in coal to provide clean electricity, second only to energy efficiency.

The studies also find that 53 percent of Americans are “very concerned” over rising electricity costs. (For a quick breakdown of the Deloitte findings, check out this Wall Street Journal blog post.)

These findings echo two points we’ve been making here all along:

1. Like us, many consumers believe that clean coal will play a major part in meeting our future energy needs.
2. To address concerns over rising energy costs, our nation needs to continue to develop ways to produce clean and affordable electricity.

This means one thing: we need to keep funding clean coal technology and carbon capture research so we can continue to close the gap between clean and affordable.

Comments

[Mike Johnston]

The Future Gen system is a hydrogen fired electrical generator. The coal (or any other source of carbon) is only used to release the hydrogen from water.

CO2 capture and or sequestration is really unnecessary from the standpoint of making one of these plants way more efficient than a traditional coal plant.

A Future Gen plant is more energy efficient because it burns the fuel directly in the turbine rather than burning it outside a boiler to generate steam. Because of this it is at least 80% more efficient right off the bat.

This means less coal is needed to produce the same amount of electricity. Also, since each atom of coal can release two atmos of hydrogen from water then the comparison would be to natural gas as far as the CO2 output of the plant NOT the CO2 output of a normal coal plant.

I don't think that the public is being informed or educated correctly as to the benefits and potentials of this system.

[KGrandia]

The report (at least according to the WSJ) also says, "the idea of capturing coal’s carbon emissions and sticking them in the ground was roundly criticized—more than 40% of utilities commissioners said the still-unproven technology would do little to reduce emissions in their states."