Many U.S. Coal Plants May Close
Bloomberg News
10 February 2011
The United States has an aging inventory of coal-fired power plants and
many units might be closed before the end of the decade, Energy
Secretary Steven Chu said.
"We're going to see massive retirements within the next five, eight
years," Chu said Wednesday at a renewable-energy conference in
Washington.
"Much of our fleet of coal plants is 40 to 50 years old."
President Obama said last month the United States should eliminate tax
subsidies for fossil-fuel production worth $4 billion a year so it can
boost spending on renewable energy and cars that run on alternative
fuels, such as electricity.
The United States also should require that 80 percent of its
electricity comes from "clean" sources, such as wind turbines and
nuclear reactors, by 2035, Obama said. Only coal-fired power plants
that capture and store their carbon-dioxide emissions would be
considered clean under Obama's proposed standard.
"Clean-coal" equipment isn't yet available for large power plants, said
Chu, whose Energy Department is funding research into the technology.
The United States had 314 gigawatts of coal-fired generating capacity
last year, which provided almost half the nation's electricity,
according to the Energy Information Administration. One gigawatt of
coal-fired capacity can power more than 500,000 average U.S. homes,
according to EIA data.
Regulations targeting mercury pollution and chemicals that cause acid
rain and smog would trigger the coal-plant closures, not new rules from
the Environmental Protection Agency on carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases linked to climate change or Obama's proposed
clean-energy standard, Chu said. He declined to say how many gigawatts
of coal capacity face closure.
The EIA predicts plants with 7.7 gigawatts of capacity will close by
2018.
Cambridge, Mass.-based The Brattle Group, a consulting firm, said in
December that 50 to 65 gigawatts of capacity may be closed by 2020
because of environmental regulations. Analysts at Zurich-based bank
Credit Suisse Group AG said in September that about 60 gigawatts of
coal capacity may be retired.
If Congress approves Obama's clean-energy standard, coal's share of the
U.S. electricity market "will shrink a little bit until we develop
those technologies that would use coal in a clean way," Chu said.
Nuclear reactors, natural gas-fired plants and renewable sources such
as wind turbines and solar panels would expand to make up lost output
from coal, he said.
It's likely "smaller, older units" that burn coal "won't be economic
under new clean air standards," said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the
Washington-based National Mining Association, which represents coal
mining companies such as Consol Energy Inc. and Peabody Energy Corp.
New coal-fired plants with better pollution controls can be built to
replace the closed units while carbon-capture technology is developed,
Popovich said in an e-mail.