Most coal mines aren't the "lop the top off the mountain"... instead they tend to have large open cut mines where vast amounts of coal are stripped out of the ground.
The monster in the pictures is from Australia and has some quite impressive statistics - you certainly wouldn't want to have a collision with it one the freeway. It weighs over 45,500 tons and cost US$100 million removing over 76,455 cubic meters a day .
The monster in the pictures is from Australia and has some quite impressive statistics - you certainly wouldn't want to have a collision with it one the freeway. It weighs over 45,500 tons and cost US$100 million removing over 76,455 cubic meters a day .
Coal quality around the world tends to vary - the mine this monster is working is a "brown" coal field - brown coal is lowest quality and particularly polluting. As you go north up the east coast of Australia, the quality of coal tends to get better and better, with most of the top quality black coal destined for export, particularly to China, which has a voracious appetite for the stuff - they are estimated to be consuming 2.2 billion tones a year of coal by 2010.
Coal is Australia's largest export, which may give you a clue as to why Australia refuses to sign the Kyoto agreement - there is also a lot of money riding on the decision.
Because brown coal is a noxious crap, it tends to be much cheaper than the better quality black coal. As a result, those electricity generators who burn the brown coal have a financial advantage over those who burn the less bad stuff. So reducing greenhouse gas emissions using any sort of market based solution is a pipe dream.
Coal is Australia's largest export, which may give you a clue as to why Australia refuses to sign the Kyoto agreement - there is also a lot of money riding on the decision.
Because brown coal is a noxious crap, it tends to be much cheaper than the better quality black coal. As a result, those electricity generators who burn the brown coal have a financial advantage over those who burn the less bad stuff. So reducing greenhouse gas emissions using any sort of market based solution is a pipe dream.
Read full from: peakenergy
