That version of the story goes something like this: On July 1, 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan departed from Lae, New Guinea in Earhartâs Lockheed Electra 10, on what was to be the longest portion of Earhartâs highly publicized round-the-world flight.
The youngest coal is not even coal yet -- peat. Peat is a traditional fuel in parts of the world, like Ireland, where it is cut from the earth, dried, and burned for heat. The energy content of peat is quite low. Young coal is called lignite, and is soft and brown, not much different than dried peat.
In 1995, Coal burning produced about 55% of the electricity generated in the U.S. In addition, know coal reserves are expected to last for centuries at current rates of usage. Coal power is a rather simple process. In most coal fired power plants, chunks of coal are crushed into fine powder and are fed into a combustion unit where it is burned. Heat from the burning coal is used to generate steam that is used to spin one or more turbines to generate electricity.