Friday January 20, 2006

Coal a viable fuel : PowerSeraya, Singapore

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

PowerSeraya reckons that coal can be a viable alternative fuel for producing electricity. 'Coal remains very much an option,' managing director Neil McGregor said on Monday. 'We've done an economic study and completed our investigations.' The year-long in-house study looked at several issues, including where it can be sourced from - Indonesia being the nearest producer - and what environmentally friendly technology was available.

Technological advances have cut pollution from coal-fired power stations have helped make coal more popular. At the same time, higher gas prices and supply worries - underlined by Russia's recent move to choke piped supplies to Ukraine - have raised doubts about gas. Mr McGregor said that known coal reserves are probably 10 times greater than known gas reserves. And with more countries chasing gas of late, the economics of gas are not looking so good.

About 85% of the gas used by Singapore generating companies is piped from Indonesia, and the rest from Malaysia. Singapore officials have been saying that the island should diversify its gas-supply sources because neighbouring countries will eventually want their gas to power their own economies. Last week, Indonesia said it was considering laws that would compel natural gas producers to allocate 25% of production for domestic use.

See also :

1. Coal : keeping the lights on in America
2. The Kremlin and the world energy war

(2006-01-20 00:59:04 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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