global coal consumption has advanced by over 50% in the past decade

[happyslug]

44. Peak coal hit the US in 1998, in terms of energy, 2002 in terms of volume

http://www.energywatchgroup.org/fileadmin/global/pdf/EWG_Report_Coal_10-07-2007ms.pdf


Page 30:

Since 1970 lower quality subbituminous and low qualitiy lignite have been contributing with rising volumes. The growing share of lower quality coal is the reason why total coal production in terms of energy content peaked in 1998 at 598.4 Mtoe and has since declined to 576.2 Mtoe in 2005 in spite of the continuous rise in produced volumes (BP 2006).

On page 32:

Another aspect is the productivity of the US coal industry in terms of produced tons per miner. Until the year 2000, productivity steadily increased for all types of coal produced covering surface and subsurface mining. But since then productivity has declined by about 10% (see the figure below). The decline in productivity can only be explained by the necessity of rising efforts in production. This might be due to deeper digging and/or to a higher level of waste production. Are these already indications for the era of "easy coal" drawing to a close?

On page 34

Even if volumetric production rates can be increased by about 60% until 2070-2080 before decline sets in, the corresponding energy production will increase only by about 45-50% due to the increased share of subbituminous coal and lignite.