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Why has the world started to mine coal again? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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With climate change looming, it seems so completely backwards to go back to using it again.

Is it coal miners pushing to keep their jobs? Fear of nuclear power? Is purely politically motivated, or are there genuinely people who believe coal is clean?

Edit, I will admit I was ignorant to the usage of coal nowadays.

Now I'm more depressed than when I posted this

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[–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Don't underestimate the battery potential of gravity!

According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity#:~:text=The%20round%2Dtrip%20energy%20efficiency,sources%20claiming%20up%20to%2087%25. The round-trip efficiency of pumped storage is 70-80%, that's pretty darn good for cheap mass-storage. There's not much more to gain there.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    Pumped water is about the only practical gravity battery, but it has limitations.

    1. It can only be built in a few geographical locations.
    2. This tends to limit it's overall capacity unless you're Norway or Switzerland.
    3. It requires flooding an area to make a storage lake and so has a high environmental impact.
    4. Building power stations inside mountains is difficult and expensive.

    So it's great stuff, but I don't think it's going to be the backbone of any storage solution we have.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It works very well, not disputing that.

    But, like geothermal power generation (which is also very good), it’s extremely dependent on location. Most populated areas don’t have the altitude differential (steep hills) and/or water supply to implement pumped hydro storage.

    Where it can be used, it should be (and largely is - fossil fuel generation does better with some storage as well, since demand is not consistent), but it’s hardly something that can be deployed alongside solar and wind generators everywhere.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    With some high voltage long-range transmission lines you could viably do it pretty much everywhere. Just requires some cooperation.

    Yes it will slightly reduce efficiency over very long distances, but it's not unreasonable amounts.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Long range transmission of AC power is limited to about 40 miles. DC can be transmitted much farther, but the infrastructure is substantially more expensive (because it’s more dangerous), so that’s only done for extreme need.

    We aren’t getting away from having many power generators all over the place, so one location-dependent storage solution isn’t going to solve all the problems.

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