A 500 MW power plant has an efficiency of 35%, so it requires burning 1429 MW of coal power. This equates to burning 38.6 kg of coal per second, or 3,337 tons of coal per day. A typical 1300 MW plant requires around 7.5 million tons of coal per year.

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The following is a rough calculation with some assumptions, as indicated.
A 500 MW power plant gives the electrical power output of the plant. Therefore the
actual power from coal combustion needs to be determined taking into account the
efficiency of the plant. A general efficiency rating for a coal fired plant is about 35%.
Therefore the resulting required power to produce 500 MW of electricity is 1429 MW
(500/0.35).
1 watt of power is equivalent to 1 Joule per second.
Therefore the plant would need to produce: 1429 x 106
(to convert MW into Watts)
Joules per second.
Next the energy per mass from coal needs to be considered. There are many types of coal
with different carbon contents, and other factors e.g. moisture content that will affect the
calorific value. However, for general purpose coal a value of 37 MJ/kg is used in the
example.
From the above it is possible to determine mass of coal burnt per second.
1429000000 J/s divided by 37000000 J/kg gives a mass of 38.6 kg/s of coal that needs to
be burnt.

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Multiplying this figure 86400 (the number of seconds in a 24 hour period), and you get
3,337,000 kg of coal burnt per day, or 3,337 tons per day.
Similarly it can be calculated for the year.
Generally a plant generating about 1300MW would require 7.5MTPA of coal

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