Forget About Peak Oil - We Haven’t Even Reached Peak Coal Yet

August 3, 2021, 2:29 pm | Admin

Despite all the heavy dissemination of narratives and talking points about a “climate emergency” and the “energy transition” during 2021, the ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic proves that the world still heavily relies on fossil fuels to provide its constantly growing energy needs. Indeed, as the pushers of Peak Oil demand theory try in vain to revive their own always-wrong narrative, it now appears that the world has yet to even meet the peak of demand for the least environmentally friendly fuel of all, coal.

This is especially true in China, India and much of Asia, where thousands of coal-fired power plants have seen record usage levels in the face of a major heat wave this summer. Bloomberg reported lastweek that China’s enormous demand for coal this summer has caused commodity prices to spike to the highest level seen in 2 months, briefly climbing above 900 yuan/ton (roughly $139.31 at current exchange rates) on Friday.

The global futures price for coal set a new record high in May as supplies ran low. Australian coal - China’s main international supplier - hit $150 per ton in July, the highest level seen since 2008. The demand is so high in China that it has even led to implementation of electricity rationing in some parts of the country as supplies run short.

"Southern China has been very hot, and the daily power load is consistently breaking new highs," said Huatai Futures Co. analyst Wang Haitao. "Although the supply of coal has increased, that's hard to sustain given the intense draw-down. Some regions are again rationing electricity and issuing warnings about using coal."

This spike in coal demand and usage is far from limited to Asia. The Wall Street Journal reported in early July that coal-fired power usage was also spiking in European countries like Germany and France, both of which spent years loudly boasting of their plans to eliminate coal from their energy profiles.

Last modified on August 3, 2021, 2:30 pm | 6374