U.S. Coal-Fired Capacity Faces Nearly 60 GW in Retirements by 2035

Photo credit: Bence Balla-Schottner on Unsplash

U.S. power plant owners and operators have told the Energy Information Administration (EIA) they plan to retire nearly 60 gigawatts (GW) of the currently operated coal-fired capacity by 2035, with no new installations reported.

The existing U.S. coal-fired facilities are actually generating more electricity for the first time since 2014, reports the EIA. According to the administration’s most recent Short Term Energy Outlook, this is largely due to the significantly higher natural gas prices and relatively stable coal prices.

Coal and natural gas have been the two largest sources of electricity generation in the United States and in many areas of the country, these two fuels compete to supply electricity based on their relative costs.

Although there is no mandatory retirement age for coal-fired power plants, it’s uneconomic for generators to continue operating older, less efficient coal plants, especially if they need upgrades to meet increasingly strict federal and state environmental rules, said the EIA. The full article is here.