Re:Carbon Removal Technologies
by semi-extrinsic on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @02:18AM
(#18290107)
Renewable energy saw a ~30% growth from 2008 to 2017, but in percentage points of the total energy consumption, that's only a 5%-point increase. The remaining 30%-point reduction in coal consumption was covered primarily by increased natural gas usage.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36812
Coal consumption in 2018 is on track for a 4% decline below 2017:
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/coal.php
That same short-term outlook predicts a further 5% drop in 2019 over 2018.
It is at least physically possible that the US could consume more coal in 2019 than in 2018, though only a sucker would take that bet. But it's not even in the realm of possibility for the US to consume an all-time-high amount of coal in 2019, greater than 2008. Too many coal plants have already been shut down and scrapped since 2008. It takes years to build a new plant. There would be years of advance warning if the US were going to reach a new peak of coal consumption, because there would have to be a large wave of new coal plant construction first.