US Coal and the Technology Innovation Frontier: What Role Does Coal Play in our Energy Future?

March 21, 2013

Ghada Ahmed | Ajmal Abdulsamad | Gary Gereffi

The U.S. coal industry is coping with declining consumption as the nation burns less coal to generate electricity. The electric power sector drives coal demand and consumes over 90% of coal production. The coal industry is facing a number of challenges that include increasing production costs and competition from natural gas in the electric power market. The decreasing share of coal in power generation implies that the future of coal depends on technologies that change the way we manage and use coal such as carbon capture and utilization, coal gasification and coal liquefaction technologies. This report was prepared for the Bank of America partnership.

• Authors of the report gave a briefing presentation on July 17, 2012 in Washington, DC. The presentation gives an overview of the coal industry. Affected companies discussed how they are responding to trends and technology and policy paths that would allow coal to remain an affordable energy source while addressing environmental impacts.
• Dan Vermeer and Josh Seidenfeld’s article, Coal Use Rising Internationally, Environmentalists Must Shape its Course in the Energy Collective (March 27, 2013) references the report.
• Ghada Ahmed, Ajmal Abdulsamad, Gary Gereffi, and Jack Daly published an article in The Electricity Journal, 27(3), p. 87-95. What Role Can Coal Play in the United States’ Energy Future? A wider collaboration framework among value chain actors may provide a technology advancement pathway. However, for this collaboration to occur, lead coal companies need to expand their business model beyond coal mining into the downstream coal conversion business to include higher-value coal products and by-products.