What is coal?
- a nonrenewable source of energy
- a fossil fuel in the earth and in mountains that has been squished and pressured and heated over millions of years
- a burnable sedimentary rock
- has high amount of carbon and hydrocarbons
Where do we get coal?
- 17 coal plants in Texas to include Fayette Power process the coal
- Texas burns more coal than any other state in the US
- Fayette Power gets most of its coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which is owned by the US Department of the Interior
- at Powder River Basin, huge equipment removes the topsoil, carves land into roads, shovels up the coal and moves soil and rocks from those mountains into pits
- Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads bring coal from Powder River to Texas
How does coal generate electricity?
- coal is burned to generate steam
- steam flows into a turbine
- the turbine spins a generator to create electricity
- the steam is cooled, returned to its water form
- the process starts over with another batch of coal