Worldwide Coal Production (Tons) Since Beginning Of The Year:
Worldwide coal production and usageCoal is one of the world's primary sources of energy. Many countries rely heavily on coal to produce electricity and heat. While concerns exist over the sustainability of oil production in the near future - called "peak oil" - no such concerns exist regarding coal. Reserves are predicted to last for several decades, if not centuries, at current production levels. In fact, several countries such as Germany have ceased coal mining because coal imported from other countries is cheaper than domestically produced coal.Coal production worldwide currently sits at around 8 billion metric tonnes and is expected to rise to over 9 billion metric tonnes by 2030. The majority of this is mined in China, which produces 3.5 billion metric tonnes, followed by the United States and India with 960 and 450 million metric tonnes respectively.
China's hunger for coalChina in particular relies heavily on coal to fuel her growing cities and industry, producing well over 70% of her energy from burning coal. This consumes over 3.2 billion metric tonnes every year. In fact, consumption in China is outpacing production, and China has not always been able to secure sufficient supply for her power plants, leading to blackouts. The Chinese government aims to keep coal consumption below 3.8 billion metric tones annually and is looking toward nuclear power production as an alternative to achieve this. Nevertheless, the vast majority of energy produced in China is created in coal-firing plants, of which 620 are currently operating in China, with another 160 planned to be added over the next four years. This means that China finishes 3 new coal power plants every month on average.In addition, China is making a modest effort to increase alternative usage of coal, such as coal-to-liquid and coal-to-gas conversions, to reduce their dependency on imported oil. This, however, will create even more demand for coal in China. In 2010, China imported almost 200 million metric tonnes of coal. New regulations regarding safety in Chinese coal mines have led to several of them being shut down for lack of safety, so China will look to import more coal until production is other mines can be brought up.