MIAMI.- Electricity generation from primarily coal-burning units declined in the United States 23% between 2021 and 2023 during all hours of the day and throughout the country, as reported by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Most of the decline occurred between 2022 and 2023, when coal-fired generation fell 19% while the average price of natural gas fell more than 60%.
Several factors have explained the reductions in coal generation since 2021:
- Coal capacity has declined as operators have retired about 37 gigawattsor 17% of the coal-fired fleet, since early 2021. Although coal-fired power plants do not have a “retirement” age, power plant owners and operators have informed the EIA that they plan to retire 28%, or 59 gigawatts, from coal-fired power plants”, so the data reflects the behavior of that announced trend.
- Solar and natural gas generation capacity has increased. Utilities or grid managers typically select the lowest-cost power available at a given point, which in recent years has typically been wind, solar, and natural gas instead of coal.
- Off-peak coal-fired generation fell by around 24% between 2021 and 2023according to the data, due in large part to natural gas-fired units displacing coal-fired units as the source of nighttime electricity.
The production of this solid mineral in the US grew 2.9% in 2022 to 594.2 million short tons, a literal translation of the English short ton (MMst) a unit of mass that is equivalent to 2,000 pounds compared to 2021, but consumption fell 5.5% year-on-year to 515.5 MMst amid rising prices, according to recently released official data.
There were 548 coal mines in production last year, 36 more than the previous year, with average capacity utilization of 68% compared to 66.1% in 2021, EIA said.
Although domestic consumption fell, exports increased by one million tons year-on-year to 86 million tons, with Europe being the leading market with 33.6 million tons. “Exports of thermal coal represented 45.9% (39.5 MMst) of the total, and metallurgical coal 54.1%.
Source: US Energy Information Administration
