Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00025679
US ENERGY
CHANGING MIX OF POWER SOURCES
EIA: Nearly a quarter of the operating U.S. coal-fired fleet scheduled to retire by 2029
CHANGING MIX OF POWER SOURCES
EIA: Nearly a quarter of the operating U.S. coal-fired fleet scheduled to retire by 2029
U.S. coal-fired generating capacity and planned retirements
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Electric Generator Inventory
Original article: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=54559
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
The information flow through popular media is only a tiny part of the information that is available at a more specialised level. This is a problem in many ways including in the field of children's education, popular political dialog and the choices the majority of people actually make in their day to day lives.
This information about the anticipated closure of coal fired electricity generating facilities is interesting ... but I would very much like to know about the history of coal fired closures and conversions over the last several years as well. I am not an expert in the energy sector, but I would like to understand much more about the way the energy sector is having impact on other big issues of our time. Yes ... I can research the subject, but it would have been nice for the piece below to have included these connected issues.
Peter Burgess
Principal contributor: M. Tyson Brown
NOVEMBER 7, 2022
Due to continued competition from natural gas and renewable resources, 23% of the 200,568 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired capacity currently operating in the United States has reported plans to retire by the end of 2029, according to our Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory.
Between 2012 and 2021, an average of 9,450 MW of U.S. coal-fired capacity was retired each year. In 2022, U.S. coal retirements will total 11,778 MW if the remaining retirements reported to us proceed as scheduled.
The pace of planned coal-fired retirements slows down after 2022; the largest amount of capacity retirement we expect over the next seven years is 9,842 MW in 2028. Planned retirements continue to be focused on relatively older facilities. Coal-fired generators—especially older, less efficient units—face higher operating and maintenance costs, which make them less competitive and more likely to retire. In addition, some coal-fired power plants must comply with regulations limiting the discharge of wastewater by 2028, which would require additional capital investment, likely influencing the decision to retire some of these coal-fired units.
The planned coal-fired retirements span 24 states, including several that do not currently have renewable portfolio standards, or other clean energy policies that require electricity suppliers to supply a set share of their electricity from specified renewable or carbon-free resources.
Michigan, Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee have the most coal-fired capacity announced to retire through 2029, accounting for a combined 42%.
The type of coal used by retiring units is shifting from mostly bituminous, accounting for 68% of the U.S. coal-fired capacity that was retired from 2011 to 2020, to mostly subbituminous- and refined coal-fueled plants, which account for a combined 68% of planned retirements between 2022 and 2029. Only 31% of the planned retirements over that time period are primarily fueled by bituminous coal.
Refined coal, which is made by mixing proprietary additives to feedstock coal, benefited from a tax credit that expired in early 2022. Of the 55,943 MW of U.S. coal-fired capacity that primarily burns refined coal, 27% (15,269 MW) has reported plans to retire between 2022 and 2029.
Power plant owners and operators report planned retirements and additions to EIA in our annual and monthly electric generator surveys. The last large (greater than 100 MW) coal-fired power plant built in the United States was the 932 MW Sandy Creek Energy Station in Texas, which came online in 2013. As of September 2022, developers have not reported any plans to build new U.S. coal-fired capacity in the future.
Tags: generation, coal, electricity, generating capacity, retirements