Coal Energy is a form of energy that is natural and comes directly from the Earth. Coal is an important natural source of energy and was initially developed from plant and vegetative life that has been buried in the Earth’s crust many millions of years ago. The vegetation that created coal was compressed at high pressures and created an element known as peat. This peat eventually turned into coal. Coal was once a living material and as such, is known as a fossil fuel, and like other fossil fuels such as natural gas and petroleum, it is carbon-based. Because coal is a fossil fuel, it is able to be burned, and this is what creates coal energy.
Coal Energy is a form of energy that is known to be non-renewable. In other words, the Earth only has a finite supply of coal energy and as such, if it is used too much, one day we will run out of it. Non-renewable energy sources are just that, energy sources that can not be re-created, or renewed to continue to supply energy.
Today, coal energy is most often used for the production of electricity. Power plants used coal energy to create electricity and hydro. Coal energy is a fuel that is also used for powering or heating industrial plants or manufacturing plants, and it is also used to create steel. Coal energy provides an abundance of chemicals that can and is used in many manufacturing process to create nylon, plastics, aspirin, paints, synthetic rubbers, and many other useful items we use every day.
Coal is known as a hydrocarbon, and it is classified according to the quantity of heat or energy that it provides. How it is ranked or classified will depend on the amount of carbon that it contains. Ranks of coal are known as: brown coal (lignite), very soft coal (subbituminous coal), soft coal (bituminous coal), and hard coal (anthracite). The most commonly used coal, and also the most abundant type of coal, that is used to create coal energy is the soft coal, or, the bituminous coal.
There are both advantages and disadvantages to using coal energy to produce electricity. The largest advantage today is that coal energy is an affordable energy source as its price has maintained stability over the years in relation to competing fuel sources. It also is available in great abundance, despite the fact that it is non-renewable. Unfortunately however, its greatest disadvantage is that it is not a clean fuel, and coal energy produces an enormous amount of pollutants and gasses. In fact, coal energy is known to produce twice as many carbon dioxide gases as natural gas. Because of these pollutants, coal energy is not the most environmentally friendly form of energy despite its affordability.
