Power - A comeback for coal
WORKERS, MAY 2007 ISSUE
A new huge 1600 megawatt coal fired power station has been announced for Tilbury in Essex, Hatfield Main pit has reopened with a 900 megawatt power station planned on-site and five new coal mines are being proposed for South Wales.
Why the expansion with coal? Partly due to energy supply fears but mainly because industry is recognising that clean coal technology, which has existed for decades, has finally come into its own – not because of the revolutionary technology but because capitalism now recognises the vast productive value of Britain's 1,000 million tonnes of coal reserves. These reserves coupled with clean coal technology and the estimated £50 billion industry in carbon technologies are overcoming the ideological hatred of "King Coal" from the Thatcherites, Blairites and Green lobby.
A third of Britain's existing coal-fired generation will require replacement in the next 10 to 15 years. The answer rests in a clean coal solution pioneered by the National Union of Mineworkers for decades, which despite government hostility is making business sit up.