New hope for coal future as new mining method announced

Dec 10 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal

A NEW method of mining coal which could open the door to a billion-pound boost for the region looks set to be pioneered off the North East coast.

A firm has been given permission to investigate using underground gasification to harness energy from coal without removing it from the ground.

The UK Coal Authority has given Clean Coal Ltd a licence for an area off the coast of Sunderland, where there are an estimated 250 million tonnes of coal under the sea bed.

If the project is successful in providing power it will be the first time gasification has been used in the UK energy market.

North East experts estimate there is coal worth £270bn below the ground in the North East, which would be enough to provide power for up to 600 years.

Coal, used in a more environmentally-friendly way than in the past, has been widely touted as a solution to the UK’s impending energy crisis, as current supplies of oil and gas run out and before renewables like offshore wind farms come online. Academics from Newcastle and Durham universities have been researching ways of making gasification, which was first pioneered in County Durham by Sir William Ramsay in 1912, viable from an economic point of view.