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South African Coal

Talking about the countries in Africa as the “developing counties” has always been something like a mask. What is that supposed to mean? Is it what you are wondering right now? Well, it is supposed to mean that everybody knows that these countries are ‘developing’ but nobody knows what is actually going on there. For example, has anybody heard of the so called South African coal? Did anybody know that there is a huge storage of coal in South Africa?

Well, talking about South African coal, it would probably be necessary to mention what the coal is going to be used for. Unsurprisingly, most of it is used in the so called coal fire plants which produce electricity by using the coal’s energy. What some people may think is: “Isn’t that a too ‘old-fashioned’ way for manufacturing electricity?” Well, the truth is that it is one of the very first methods for producing electricity but that does not mean that it could not be used nowadays. Yes, there are many other modern alternative sources used: sun power, wind power and even the water power. The nuclear energy should not be neglected also since the electricity produced by nuclear reactors is cheap plus the environment is kept safe (because of the minute risks).

But all those facts should not make you think that the coal should not be used. Of course, it should! You would probably find it interesting to learn that even the United States produce 50% of the electricity by using the coal’s energy. Well, the most powerful country in the world uses mainly this way for generating electricity! It can’t be so bad.

However, we should not forget that it is all about the South African coal, not the American! But what could be said about the electricity in South Africa? It would be stupid to think that the main sources of power are wind, sun or water. Of course, not! The region counts mainly on the coal as a source of energy used for producing electricity. Averagely, it has been calculated that 80% of the electricity generated in South Africa has been obtained from coal fire plants. The other 20% are logically shared between the water electricity stations and nuclear plants. The percentage of the electricity generated from the wind power is insignificant because of the specific climate conditions- it’s seldom windy there! And as far as the solar panels are concerned, they are an expensive investment which very few people could afford to make.

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