When the news broke that a startup funded by Bill Gates had succeeded in generating temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius using solar energy, it dealt a blow to coal. After all, heavy industries are one of the last strongholds of the fossil fuel because of its ability to produce super high temperatures that solar and wind couldn’t even come close to–until now. But even with that solar breakthrough, coal, dirty or not, is far from dead. A Steady Decline in Consumption The cheapest of the fossil fuels is still a popular one among smelters and power utilities. Its consumption on a global scale is indeed declining, but this decline only began in the current decade. Recently, a study projected that this year will see a record coal use drop of 3% globally, but the end of coal is still not in sight. “It is clear that the […]