Nearly 1,200 coal plants planned — report

Mostly slated to operate in China and India, report says

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nearly-1200-coal-plants-planned-report-2012-11-21?mod=MKTW_ALL&link=sfmw

Nov. 21, 2012, 6:00 a.m. EST

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By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Nearly 1,200 new coal-fired power plants are being planned across the globe, mostly in India and China, according to a report by the World Resources Institute.

If all the projects were completed, they would add coal-power capacity equivalent to almost four times the current capacity of coal-fired plants in the U.S., the report said. The proposed plants would have total installed capacity of 1.4 million megawatts, it added.

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China and India account for 76% of the proposed coal plants, the institute said. The research also identified 36 proposed coal-fired plants in the U.S.

These are unlikely to gain approval due to environmental concerns, however, and coal-fired plants are also becoming less attractive amid a glut of cheaper natural gas that has chipped away at coal demand in the U.S.

China is the No. 1 coal-fired power producer, followed by the U.S. and India. Germany and Japan round up the top five.

The U.S. holds the world’s largest estimated recoverable coal reserves and is a net exporter of coal, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

U.S. production increased in 2011 from 2010, mostly driven by export demand, the EIA said in its November annual coal report. The U.S. is the No. 3 largest coal exporter.

Coal prices increased an average of 15% last year, to $41.01 per short ton. The average number of employees in U.S. coal mines, however, declined 6% in 2011, the EIA said.

U.S. coal mining companies have been under pressure in recent weeks, and on Tuesday coal miner Peabody Energy Corp. BTU -0.40%  was among the top losers in energy stocks, with shares off 2.3%. Rival Consol Energy Inc. CNX +0.07%  retreated 2.1%.

Peabody shares have declined nearly 30% in the past year, and Consol has slid nearly 15%.

In the global coal market, trade in the Pacific region has grown, driven by demand from China and India. The Atlantic trade, however, has waned “due to the economic slowdown and growing social resistance to coal-fired plants in Europe and North America,” the researchers at World Resources Institute said.

Japan, China, and South Korea are the world’s largest coal importers, the institute said. In Japan, as pressure mounts to phase out nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster, coal imports are likely to continue to grow, it said.

New mines in Australia and Indonesia, the world’s two largest coal exporters, are being developed to meet Asian demand. Rising coal demand in China is also fueling exports from two newcomers, Mongolia and North Korea, the World Resources Institute said.

Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch. Follow her on Twitter @ClaudiaAssisMW.