The coal-combustion technologies that are currently in use are reviewed in detail in the Module on the Fundamentals of coal combustion. As is noted there, technological development is largely aimed at improving the efficiency of coal combustion (extracting more of the contained energy) and at reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and other environmentally deleterious materials such as sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, trace elements and particulates from coal usage. More information about these aspects is contained in the respective Chapters of CoalOnline.

The world’s generating capacity has grown 15 times since 1950 (at roughly twice the rate of world economic output), whilst the cost of buying a unit of electricity has dropped by 75% in real terms since the 1940s. However, the century-old power industry has recently undergone a series of major changes driven by deregulation, technological improvements and stricter environmental legislation. As a result, today’s power generation industry is becoming increasingly dynamic, and this trend is expected to become more evident in the future.

As of the end of 1999, there were over 1600 pulverised coal fired power plants in the world, comprising more than 4000 units with a total capacity of more than 1000 GWe. This accounted for almost 40% of total electricity production. Coal’s share in the fuel market, especially for power generation, is expected to continue at the same level over the next two decades.

This Chapter looks at how coal can be used more effectively for electricity generation under today’s much more competitive market conditions, and reviews the different routes that are currently available for achieving low operational costs whilst ensuring the maximum efficiency of existing power plants.

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