Coal 's role in electricity generation worldwide
Coal plays a vital role in electricity generation worldwide. Coal-fired power plants currently fuel 37% of global electricity and, in some countries, an even higher percentage. Modern life is unimaginable without electricity. It lights houses, buildings, streets, provides domestic and industrial heat, and powers most equipment used in homes, offices and machinery in factories. Improving access to electricity worldwide is critical to alleviating poverty.
The proportion of coal in power generation fluctuated from 1996 to 2015 but remained at a level around 50% overall. And that means that we still rely on coal resources to generate electricity. Also, from the plot we see that almost all level of demand for coal power generation exists. And we see a decrease in the number of countries that their coal power generation accounts for more than 80%.
From the chart above, we can see that there is no significant change in coal power generation in most of the G20 countries over time. And the change of coal power generation proportion is neither always positive nor always negative. Coal is not a clean energy and it is limited; we still rely on it to generate electricity though we are trying to perserve the nature enviornment.
Some countries like India takes more priority on it's economic and other developments so it takes coal as power source increasingly over time.