Cheap coal turns Southeast Asia away from gas
Published by Jonathan Rowland,
Editor
World Coal,
Southeast Asia will “tilt away from gas to use more coal”, according to a recent report from Reuters, as the region tries to cut the cost of providing electricity for its 600 million people.
Driven by demand for LNG in Japan – where the nuclear industry is in crisis – and China as it tries to switch away from coal, the price of gas in Asia is currently five times that of gas in US. This makes 1 MW of LNG-fired power twice as expensive as 1 MW of coal-fired power in Asia, say the IEA. “People in this region keep talking about green growth, but when I look at the numbers, the growth is not green. It is black as coal,” says Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA.
Even with a wave of LNG projects coming online in the region in the second half of the decade, a concurrent rise in global LNG demand will keep the market tight and maintain coal’s cost advantage.
Power generation is set to rise by 50% in Southeast Asia to 2020: the IEA expects half of this to be coal-fired while only a quarter will be gas-fired. “Coal is now making a sneak return,” according to Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of Facts Global Energy, an energy consultancy. “ Sellers of LNG believer the buyers have no choice. But they do: it is coal.”
Written by Jonathan Rowland
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/power/11122013/cheap_coal_turns_southeast_asia_away_from_gas_coalnews343/
You might also like
Electrification in Mining virtual conference
Join us on 16 April 2024 for Global Mining Review's first Electrification in Mining event is an interactive virtual conference, focusing on electrification as the future of sustainable mining and exploring the innovative approaches and technologies being developed to facilitate its implementation.
Industry veteran joins Arch Resources as Senior VP and COO
Arch Resources, Inc. has announced that George J. Schuller Jr has joined the company as Senior VP and COO, effective immediately.