brown coal – sunshine hours

China’s economy continues to drive ahead powered by coal. They consume 50% of the world production. The use the cheap electricity produced by burning coal to manufacture inexpensive goods and then sell them all over the world.

Germany, on the other hand, has chosen to use cheap electricity to subsidize wind turbines and solar panels.

“At the center of Europe’s coal renaissance is the region around the German-Polish border, already home to five of Europe’s most polluting coal plants, says the report, which was compiled by CAN Europe, WWF, the European Environmental Bureau, the Health and Environment Alliance and Climate Alliance Germany. Swedish power firm Vattenfall GmbH is now planning to expand the number of open-cast mines in the Lausitz area to exploit its deposits of lignite, a particularly polluting type of coal.

Vattenfall says the Lausitz mines, with their vast deposits, are there to take up the slack when renewable energy sources fail to meet Germany’s needs. “Without flexible and reliable brown coal, we wouldn’t be able to provide stable electricity supplies at stable prices,” the company says on its website.”

http://www.thegwpf.com/europes-coal-renaissance-undermines-it-green-credentials/

Germany has decided to mock Obama’s plan to kill off coal power in the USA:

“The eastern German state of Brandenburg approved plans on Tuesday to allow utility Vattenfall to mine a further 200 million tonnes of brown coal from 2026, a move critics say will cause pollution and also force 800 people from their homes.

Brown coal – also known as lignite – has a high moisture content and can be susceptible to spontaneous combustion, making it difficult to store and transport. Therefore, it is often burnt in power stations near to mines. It also emits more carbon dioxide when burnt compared with other types of coal, making it more harmful to the environment.

Opponents of the fuel, which accounts for about a quarter of German power, have campaigned hard for its use to be halted because of the high levels of carbon dioxide emissions and because they say about 800 local residents will be forced to relocate to make way for the new open-cast mining.

But its advocates say brown coal allows the use of domestic raw materials for a reliable source of electricity, especially in industrial parts of Germany, and reduces the need for energy imports.”

Germany is now squandering trillions on “green” energy subsidies … and paying for them by burning even more filthy brown coal. They could have been fracking for clean natural gas. But no … they shut down their nuclear power stations too.

http://www.thegwpf.org/german-state-allows-huge-expansion-of-brown-coal-mining/

Tag: brown coal

Coal: China vs Germany

Germany Mocks Obama By Burning More Brown Coal