Chapter 20 Myth: We Can Replace Coal With Wood Trevor Larson

The Claim ‘Everyone likes wood. So when it comes to generating electricity, let’s just replace coal with wood. Easy, right?’

The Claim (cont.) The Green/Left think it’s possible to replace coal with wood including a blogger referenced by Bryce named Joe Romm. Romm cited a plan by Georgia Power to convert one of its plants to wood power.

The Problem Wood has less than ½ the energy density that coal does.

The Debunk The Georgia Power plant that had switched from coal to wood went from 155 MW capacity down to 96 MW To replace 10% of coal-fired electricity means more than doubling U.S. wood use 10,000 tons per year is needed to produce 1 MW of electricity

The Debunk (cont.) Bryce states that the U.S. has about 336,300 MW of coal-fired electricity capacity. To replace 10% of that- 33,630 MW, requires about million tons of wood per year Current wood consumption by the U.S. is about million tons per year

The Conclusion To replace 10% of coal-fired electricity means the U.S. would need to consume close to 573 million tons of wood per year, which is about 2.5 times current consumption

Questions for You How many MW’s of capacity was Georgia Power’s plant reduced to? To replace 10% of coal-fired electricity with wood-fired electricity, how much wood would need to be consumed?

Questions?