THE recent heavy rain has prompted many people to ask why our weather patterns have changed. My opinion is that the change from coal to gas as a fuel for electricity generation has had an impact.
If a power station which burns 100,000 tonnes of coal per year is closed and replaced by a gas installation, we will continue to burn roughly the same weight of fuel for the same amount of electric power generated. The waste products from a gas-fuelled station are carbon dioxide and water. The only differences between coal and gas as fuels are that coal produces mostly carbon dioxide whereas with gas some of the carbon dioxide is replaced by water.
In a coal-fired station, there are always some small particles of smoke or dust in the exhaust gases. Each of these particles tends to accumulate water to make a droplet of suspended in the atmosphere.
This is one of the reasons why we used to have periods of light rain or drizzle.
If a power station which burns 100,000 tonnes of coal per year is closed and replaced by a gas installation, we will continue to burn roughly the same weight of fuel for the same amount of electric power generated. The waste products from a gas-fuelled station are carbon dioxide and water. The only differences between coal and gas as fuels are that coal produces mostly carbon dioxide whereas with gas some of the carbon dioxide is replaced by water.
In a coal-fired station, there are always some small particles of smoke or dust in the exhaust gases. Each of these particles tends to accumulate water to make a droplet of suspended in the atmosphere.
This is one of the reasons why we used to have periods of light rain or drizzle.
The output from a gas-powered station is carbon dioxide and water that has been through a turbine at high temperature and the water is in molecular form rather than droplets. The molecular water accumulates in the atmosphere until it reaches saturation point when it comes down in a rain storm.
Could it be that to regulate
our rainfall we need either more coal powered stations or more smoky factory chimneys to provide some regulation of our rainfall pattern?
This opinion is derived from my own knowledge of science and engineering, though I am not an expert in weather systems or climate.
(Yorks Post).
I'm afraid that my own scientific knowledge cannot say whether this is right, wrong or even a possibility. Interesting thought, though.
