Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com

Although it’s the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, coal will remain a key fuel for generating electricity, thus a “massive investment opportunity” exists as new technology is developed and employed to make coal-fired power plants run cleaner, and as coal starts to be used to make liquid fuels in support of nations’ quest to be energy independent.

That’s the conclusion of a new report on “cleaner” coal technologies from Merriman Curhan Ford, the investment banking firm. The report concludes that if existing coal-fired power plants are equipped with air pollution control equipment, and if a majority of new plants are built on clean-coal platforms, a $170 billion market opportunity exists over the next two decades.

The Wall Street firm, which is known for its “cleantech” research, further concludes that coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology represents a “viable means for energy independence,” and thus it sees a $60 billion annual “unconventional” liquid fuels market developing by 2030, as coal is used instead of oil to make primarily transportation fuels.

Overall, the report concludes: “We see this multibillion-dollar clean coal industry thriving both on the domestic and international fronts, as social, legislative, economic and technological drivers come together to make reliance on coal as an energy source a much more environmentally sound practice. As these factors come together, we believe there will be a massive investment opportunity over the next few decades to support technology development and subsequent global deployment.”

To be sure, investors need to weigh the conclusions of this report with those reported on yesterday in Part 1. In Part 1 Merriman Curhan Ford noted that up to a third of anticipated electricity demand in the U.S. could be eliminated if energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lighting achieved broad acceptance.

But while LEDs’ gain could be at the expense of clean coal, it still seems as if a major investment opportunity in clean coal technology should exist. The Merriman Curhan Ford report lists a number of publicly-traded companies “involved” in cleaner coal, including: ADA-ES Inc., Calgon Carbon Corp., Fuel Tech Inc. and Headwaters Inc.