Trump to endorse coal for data center power in the face of grim market realities
President Donald Trump will sign an executive command on Tuesday, aimed at stimulating the flagging fortune of Coal, report Bloomberg.
The order will dedicate to the federal government to enforce coal as a critical mineral and some coal -fired power plants that had had to do with closure to continue to generate electricity. The Trump administration is expected to record the directive as part of an attempt to increase the electricity production as the question of data centers.
Although the executive order can prevent some closures, it is unlikely that it will turn the ongoing decline of the coal in the energy sector. The share of coal has steadily rejected Since 2001, when it generated 51% of the electricity of the country and peaked gross consumption in 2007. Today the share of the coal is around 15%.
Clean Air instructions have caused some of the fellow power plants, but the most important driver has been cheap natural gas. Cheap renewable sources such as wind and sun have also played a role.
Coal is the dirtiest way to generate electricity. It releases more carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour than any other fossil fuel, and the smoke is loaded with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and fine particles.
Together they cause one reach of environmental and health problemsFrom sour rain and ozone to heart disease and Possible Parkinson’s. The burning of coal also releases mercury in the environment, where it collects in fish and other animalsEventually end up in the people they eat. Mercury poisoning lowers IQ and causes birth errors.
The Trump government can be more lucky in designating metallurgical coal as a critical mineral. Steel, however, often make not alwaysUses coal carbon to reduce iron ore to ribs iron, an intermediary material. Although green steel techniques have made progress against coal -based, they are still usually more expensive.
But in the energy sector, coal faces considerable challenges. Existing power plants may get a short delay, but they will compete with solar and wind, which are cheap today and become cheaper. All coal -fired power station except one coal -fired power stations in the US is less expensive To work then the construction of new renewable energy sources.
Renewable energy sources can also be implemented faster than new fossil fuel plants, which makes the prospect of building new coal -fired power stations to deal with data center load even more remotely.
