USA closes 13GW coal-fired power plants in 2018

• 5 years ago (2019-07-30)
• David Flin

Coal 296 North America 1021

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The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has said that coal-fired plants continue to close in the USA, with 13GW of coal-fired generation capacity being retired in 2018. This is the second highest annual total for US coal retirements in the EIA data.

The annual number of retired US coal units has declined since 2015, and the configuration has changed. Coal-fired units that retired after 2015 have generally been larger and not as old as those retired before 2015. The units that were retired in 2018 had an average capacity of 350MW, and an average age of 46 years. This compares with an average capacity of 129MW and an average age of 56 years for coal units retired in 2015.

Coal-fired plant owners have said that they are retiring units because of relatively flat electricity demand growth and increased competition from natural gas and renewables.