Evidently 93% of the coal produced in the U.S. last year was used for generating electricity. The remaining, roughly 7%, of the coal production was exported for both steel-making processes, and energy production in foreign countries.
The EIA suggests the mild temperatures this winter and natural gas' low market price dropped coal-fired generation from the energy sector like a hot rock. The drop was further greased by expanded renewable energy offerings, a proliferation of energy efficiency programs, and the recession economy.
I can't predict the whether next winter will offer the same mild temperatures, nor do I posses a crystal ball when it comes to the market price of natural gas. But I can predict that operation of coal fired power plants will continue to drop. The Institute for Energy Research reported in February that the energy landscape is speckled with coal power plant closings.
The energy markets and the regulatory environment are essentially pushing in the same direction at this point. A direction away from coal and toward natural gas. Natural gas units, particularly those in combined-cycle configurations, tend offer cleaner emissions, more operational flexibility, and they operate at higher efficiency rates than older, coal-fired units.
The push toward natural gas or other alternatives is so strong that one-hundred coal plants have closed or announced closure plans, since January of 2010. The average age of the 300+ individual coal-fired units being retired is upwards of fifty-years old. And in terms of emissions, choking off those stacks will represent shedding 162 million tons of carbon-dioxide a year. But, you know, 162 million tons-here, 162 million tons – there, and pretty soon it starts to add up and look like real carbon reductions.
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