EnergyCoal and U.S electric power generation
Coal is an important fuel source in the United States today. Responsible for approximately 39 percent of the country’s electrical generation, coal is vital to the day-to-day operation of people’s lives. The United States is rich in coal deposits, with large resources. One of the most important and largest of those deposits is found in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming and Montana, which, in 2012, produced more than 42 percent of the nation’s coal.
Coal supplies 30 percent of U.S. electric power // Source: kahaba.info
Coal is an important fuel source in the United States today. Responsible for approximately 39 percent of the country’s electrical generation, coal is vital to the day-to-day operation of people’s lives.
The United States is rich in coal deposits, with large resources. One of the most important and largest of those deposits is found in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming and Montana, which, in 2012, produced more than 42 percent of the nation’s coal.
On 26 February, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) released its new assessment of in-place resources, recoverable resources, and economic reserves of coal in the Powder River Basin, the first of a new generation of coal assessments from the USGS.
A USGS release reports that estimates of total in-place coal resources in the PRB are 1.07 trillion short tons, while recoverable coal resources are 162 billion short tons, and coal reserves are 25 billion short tons.
What do all these numbers mean?
Previous assessments focused only on total in-place and recoverable coal resources, but this assessment includes in-place resources and a regional assessment of recoverable coal resources and economic coal reserves.
In-place coal resources include in-place tonnage estimates of total coal volumes. In-place resources are those quantities that are estimated, as of a given date, to be contained in known deposits prior to production. The quantity which can be technically produced or mined, may be significantly less than the volumes estimated to be in place.
Recoverable resources are calculated using those coal beds from the total in-place resources that are deemed both shallow and thick enough to be recoverable using current surface mining technology.
Coal reserves are a subset of coal resources. To be classified as reserves, the coal must be considered economically producible at the time of classification, but facilities for extraction need not be installed and operative.
Current reserves does not mean that is all that remains mineable. The size of reserves changes because mining costs and coal sales prices are subject to fluctuation based on market conditions — recoverable resources become reserves with favorable changes in costs, demand, and prices.
What is coal?
Coal is a sedimentary rock made predominantly of carbon that can be burned for fuel. Coal formed when prehistoric forests and marshes were buried and compressed over hundreds of millions of years. After deposition and subsequent burial, some contents of the rock, such as moisture, are squeezed out due to the pressure leading to higher and higher
