The world today depends on fossil fuels – oil, coal and gas (in that order of importance) – for over 80% of its primary energy. From the time early humans tamed fire, wood or biomass became their primary energy sources. Coal took over the leading role from biomass during the Industrial Revolution and accounted for over 60% of the world's primary energy by the early 1900s. The current age is often referred to as the ‘Oil Age’ (or the end thereof), which is somewhat appropriate considering that about 35% of the world's primary energy still comes from oil. However, today about 27% of the world's primary energy and more than 40% of the world's electricity comes from coal. In addition, about 66% of the world's steel is produced using coal (IEA – Statistics, 2012; VDKI, 2006, 2011, 2012) and coal is now expected to overtake oil again as the most important source of energy.
The World Coal Institute already projected a decade ago that coal will again become the primary source of energy in the future (see Figure 2.1). Despite the fact that the illustration may change slightly (especially the gas section) considering the recent shale gas revolution in North America, it does correspond to the global belief that future electricity demand will largely be met by coal as a fuel at least for decades to come.
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