A total of 60 gigawatts of coal fired power generation capacity was to have been retired by 2020 in the USA, but new projections show 90% will occur by 2016.
The earlier closures are connected to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which require significant reductions in emissions of mercury, acid gases and toxic metals by no later than 2016.
Meeting these standards is expensive. Add to that the rise of renewable energy and gas fired generation along with energy efficiency efforts and the business case for some plants becomes very weak.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) there were more than 1,300 coal-fired generating units totalling 310 GW of capacity in the USA at the end of 2012 after 10.2 GW of capacity was retired that year. 8.8 GW of capacity was shuttered last year.
Last November, natural gas displaced coal as the primary fuel used in electricity generation in almost all parts of the nation. Just a few years ago, coal generated 44% of the USA’s electricity and was the single biggest air polluter in the country. Today, coal’s share in the power generation mix is well below 40%.
Renewable energy provided 14.2 percent of the nation’s net electric power generation during the first half of last year.
The USA’s love affair with coal for domestic power generation is waning, but unfortunately this doesn’t mean coal is staying in the ground – the USA’s coal exports have grown. Like Australia, the US is a Typhoid Mary of sorts in relation to coal.
While on the topic of coal and closer to home, it’s been revealed that officials considered evacuating the town of Morwell in Victoria due to smoke from a coal mine fire that has been burning for nearly 12 days now.
While the population of around 12,000 were not forced to flee, the ABC reports some residents are suffering from headaches, sore throats and impaired breathing. Hundreds of students from a primary school are now attending classes in neighbouring Moe due to poor air quality.
Various noxious gases are being generated by the fire, but one of primary concern is carbon monoxide; which is invisible, odourless and can be lethal.
Coal mine and coal seam fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish. A coal seam fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania is still burning more than half a century after it began.
