Is coal a renewable or non-renewable source of energy?

Answer 1

Coal Is non renewable. You can only use it once, and then it's ash.

Renewable means you use it today, like heat stored from the sun, and more heat still there tomorrow to store again. An example involves wood (burned directly) or crops (converted to ethyl or methyl alcohol or biodiesel and then burnt). These plants can be continuously harvested, used as a fuel and then be regrown (capturing and storing energy received from the sun) again. You can do this on a seasonal basis or whatever cycle length the plant's life cycle dictates (trees may take years to cycle, plants on an annual basis). This makes these plants 'renewable' energy sources while coal is not for reasons stated below:

While coal formation is occurring even today, it is for all practical purpose a non-renewable resource. Most coal that is being mined today is from plants that lived millions of years ago and have undergone changes that require geologic pressures and time. The forests that grew during the Carbonaceous Period from which most coal comes from dwarf today's forests and the dead plants built up into very thick layers to eventually compress into coal. Mankind's activities seldom allow for such thick layers of dead plants to occur today.