Challenges and opportunities

Canada’s abundance of coal resources and the use of coal as a plentiful, affordable fuel source in electricity generation and industrial markets have made coal an important part of our energy sector and encouraged the growth of the coal mining industry. Looking to the future, the industry’s growth and environmental performance will be shaped by different challenges and opportunities:

• coal — essential part of Canada’s electricity generation mix
  The main domestic use of coal in Canada continues to be for generating electricity, with coal accounting for nearly a fifth of Canada’s electricity generation mix. In 2002, about 90 per cent of Canadian coal consumption — about 60 million tonnes — went to fuelling thermal power plants across Canada. Of this total, Alberta, the largest coal-consuming province, used about 25 million tonnes to generate electricity, while Ontario, the second largest coal-consuming province, used about 21 million tonnes. Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick also used smaller amounts of coal for electricity generation. Except in Ontario (where large amounts of coal are imported from the U.S), most of this coal came from Canadian mines. Canada’s Prairie and Atlantic regions are endowed with rich reserves of coal. In these areas especially, where geography is not conducive to large-scale hydro projects, coal continues to provide an essential fuel source for electricity.
  
  
• clean coal technologies offer lower environmental impacts
  Environmental challenges, such as greenhouse gases and other air emissions, are the main issues facing continued coal use in electricity generation. But emerging “clean coal” technologies are available, at a nominal cost premium, to reduce these emissions. New technologies such as fluidized bed combustion, integrated gasification combined cycle, advanced pulverized coal combustion and super-critical and ultra super-critical burners are designed to increase the efficiency of coal use and lower emissions. The Canadian Clean Power Coalition (CCPC), an association of coal and coal-fired electricity producers, is working with the federal government to develop these technologies. Natural Resources Canada has invested $1.6 million in a CCPC-led project to retrofit an existing coal-burning plant by 2007 to remove greenhouse gases and other air emissions.