Cost of Coal Lydia Mitchell Laura Erdman Section 005, Kendra Walker

Outline  Costs of Coal  Benefits of Coal  Analysis of Current Energy Use  Solar Energy  Geothermal Energy  Wind Energy  Cost Benefit Analysis and Alternatives in the Future

Costs of Coal  Non-renewable resource.  Burning coal increases carbon dioxide.  Environmental health (increasing sulfur, nitrogen oxide, and mercury).  Human health (particulate matter).  Unsafe mining.  “And we have little more than a century to develop adequate, practical, and inexpensive technologies to replace some of these sources” (Borowitz).

Benefits of Coal  Inexpensive and abundant.  Potential for development to become safer, an example being gasification.  Upgrading coal is more cost effective than going to an alternative source of energy.  Upgrading would also lower dependence on foreign oil.

Analysis of Current Energy Use U.S. Energy Consumption by Energy Source In Quadrillion Btu Energy Source Fossil fuels Coal Coal Coke Net Imports Natural gas Petroleum Electricity Net Imports Nuclear Electric Power Renewable Energy Conventional Hydroelectric Geothermal Energy Biomass Solar Energy Wind Energy Total

Solar Energy  Photovoltaic cells.  Inexhaustible.  Minimal impact on the environment.  Low-maintenance.  Does not have good transmission and storage systems.

Geothermal Energy  Uses heat from inside of the earth.  Earth must be drilled and pumped to remove heat.  Huge amount of energy. Cura.asp

Wind Energy  Renewable energy.  Form of solar energy.  Costs lowering.  Wind farms.  May negatively effect habitats and are considered ugly. y/nn/nn_rt/nn_rt_wind/images

Cost Benefit Analysis and Alternatives in the Future  Theories on cost benefit analysis.  Change in coal infrastructure.  Change to alternative energies.  Public Influence.  Government Action.  Drivers of Change.