Photograph by Toby Smith, Reportage by Getty Images
China's about-face, in 2009, from net exporter of coal to net importer was "one of the most dramatic realignments" the global coal market has ever seen, according to coal and carbon market researchers at Stanford University.
This photo shows workers unloading high-quality coal from Indonesia at a custom-built mineral jetty in Fangchen Gang, Guangxi. Indonesian steam coal (the type of coal used for steam power generation), shipped into southern Chinese ports, currently offers a cheaper alternative to domestic Chinese coal transported over land, Stanford researcher Bart Lucarelli wrote in his 2010 paper, "The History and Future of Indonesia's Coal Industry."
The lower price of coal shipped by sea, not a shortfall of Chinese coal, Lucarelli wrote, caused China to look to Indonesia for fuel. And China, as an export market, "burst onto the Indonesian coal supply scene almost overnight."
The coal being unloaded in this photo will fuel a supercritical power station. Supercritical boiler systems can deliver thermodynamic efficiency around 41 percent, compared to 37 percent for subcritical systems and 48 percent for more advanced "ultra-supercritical" systems, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
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