Coal We have used coal for a long time. Two thousand years ago, the Roman people used it to heat their homes and make metals, We still use coal for these things today, but most coal is burnt in power stations to make electricity About 40 per cent of the world's electricity comes from coal. Every week, somewhere in the world, a new power station that burns coal is built To make the electricity that your fridge uses in one year, you need about 300 kilograms of coal! The biggest coal power stations burn 10-15 million tonnes of coal every year. A lot of that coal comes in ships from thousands of kilometres away. In some places, we get this coal from huge holes on the surface of the earth. In other places, the coal comes from hundreds of metres under the ground. There is not much room to move, and the temperature can be 40 oC or more.