There is much research in progress, from the catalysed pyrolytic conversion of solid organic waste to high quality liquid fuel, to numerous investigations of new solar cell and battery technologies, and numerous little tested options like ocean fertilization. Any of these technologies would change things dramatically. If nothing happens in the next ten years there might be cause for concern, but the current rate of scientific progress leaves me little reason not to be optimistic.

Actually coal gets to be a very complicated calculation.
As the higher BTU rated coals get depleted an increasing tonnage has to
be mined and transported to produce the same amount of electricity.
The increased production costs more and uses greater amounts of diesel
to transport.
So a calculation of peak moves nearer as you move to lower grade coals.
This is the situation in Europe and the USA.
Currently the US is well past peak on the highest grades.
There have been a number of studies on coal and it does seem that
world peak will occur somewhere around 2025 to 2030
Just to stand still greater rate of production will be needed.
This will result in higher electricity costs.
The whole problem will be magnified with the introduction of electric cars.
Perhaps each electric car should be a package with a set of solar
cells with mains connection so a credit can be obtained to enable
recharging overnight.

If we leave it too late to start work on alternative energy systems
we will not have the money or resources to build them.
Those pushing for drastic reductions in emissions now do not realise
that we need the current energy sources to manufacture the alternative
energy production system whatever that may turn out to be.
The scale of the present system is so large that glib statements that
we can use solar and wind are laughable.

If geothermal does not work to scale then nuclear is the only alternative.
Natural gas will give more time, but we will need to husband our
stocks or we will cut our own throats.

I do not know if anyone has information on this but I have a recollection that about 20 years ago the Swiss developed an electric car that was recharged through the use of solar panels its range was about 300K.

Any electric car can be charged from solar cells, but the commuter
arrives home at sunset or after dark, so you need a storage system or
a mains connection so you can pump juice into the mains while the sun
is out, build up a credit and then use that credit to charge over night.
If you meant solar cells mounted on a car, no car can have enough roof
and bonnet space to mount enough cells to drive the car.
You might be referring to the ones used in the Darwin Adelaide run,
well they are hardly a practical car.

The way boiler technology is advancing, it shouldn't be too long before we have effective, & convenient coal fired steam cars.

We should then be able to go back to steam trains, as well.

Should be fun listening to the greenies spin that lot.

Save a lot of imports of hydrocarbons.

@rstuart
@Bazz

The US Energy Information Agency figure of 930 billion short tons for world coal reserves that you have spoken of is as of 2006. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#World_coal_reserves

Since then there has been confirmation of very significant reserves of coal in the Pedirka Basin, a geological province beneath the Simpson Desert in central Australia. Exploratory drilling to the end of 2009 had confirmed the existence of seams at depth having aggregate thickness of 100m, with some individual seams of 30 - 40m thickness. These seams are indicated as extending over some thousands of square kilometres of the basin, and are estimated to contain in the order of several trillions of tons of coal. See: http://www.scandoil.com/moxie-bm2/news/central-petroleum-to-drill-five-coal-seam-gas-well.shtml and http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=78720&sn=Detail

It is not mentioned within the links I have just posted, but in my surfing around on this subject I recall seeing a figure of 1.8 trillion tons for reserves above 1000m in depth. A comparable, but perhaps not so fully determined, amount of reserves exists below this level.

A trillion is one thousand billion, if I am not mistaken. You thus have a tripling of the 2006 world coal reserves figure when account is taken of just the above-1000-metres-depth Pedirka deposit reserves. A possible quintupling if the reserves at greater depth are included.

Isn't it interesting how little has been said about the Pedirka Basin discoveries, at least here in Australia? Isn't it also interesting how, to all accounts, AGW and the evils of coal has been a topical subject more so in Australia than anywhere else in the world?

In the light of the concerns expressed earlier in the thread as to whether or not proximity to peak coal is of likely relevance to coal's contribution to future AGW, you may be interested in the implications of the form of carbon sequestration outlined in this post made to another thread: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=10104#163615

The prospect would appear to exist for not only offsetting future CO2 emissions, but of removing anthropogenic ones to date!