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USA Electricity Generation - Big Drop in Coal Burning [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-02

Here is a mid year update on America’s electricity generation. The data shown is all from the Energy Information Administration and covers the lower 48 plus DC (Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico don’t change the numbers by any significant amount). First up is the numbers for electricity generation by fuel and combined into groups. Solar and wind generation has a nice rise but the big event is the reduction in coal usage and, if this continues, 2023 will be a record low. Coal plus natgas usage has dropped nicely and most of that has been replaced by wind plus solar (yay!).



The next two charts show the data from above for the individual and grouped sources.

So why the sudden drop in coal burning — money. These charts show the average price paid for natural gas and coal for generating electricity. The huge spike is the Feb. 2021 Texas freeze and after that natgas prices rise until the end of 2022 (I think mostly because of gas supply uncertainty in Europe). In 2023 the prices have dropped fast back to 2020 levels.

Coal prices have risen over the last three years. That makes natgas much more cost competitive and the preferred fuel.

The planned closures for the next twelve months are coal and natural gas units. Some of the closing coal units are quite big but the rate of closures has slowed for a while compared to the last few years but should pick up again next year. Each megawatt-hour of electricity produced from burning coal releases 2.25 times the greenhouse gasses compared to burning natural gas so switching away from coal produces a nice environmental result. We only control what is burned in this country and, regardless of what other countries are doing, we need to keep going down to zero coal. Fossil fuels are so 20th century — renewables must power the 21st century.

The planned additions for the next twelve months shows lots of solar and battery, some inland wind and our first offshore wind projects near Rhode Island and New Jersey. The offshore wind is very important for the densely populated Richmond to Boston corridor and many more such projects are in the planning stages.

We also see one of two new power units opening at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia. The Vogtle plant currently has two reactors, units 1 and 2 both built in the 1980s, operating and is adding units 3 and 4. Unit 3 started operation last month and unit 4 is being fueled to start operation next year. The two new units are seven years behind schedule and 17 billion dollars over budget (for a total of 35 billion dollars) which caused the bankruptcy and closing of the Westinghouse nuclear division. Georgia Power customers will see an increase of 9 dollars per month for the next 60 years to pay for part of the cost overrun. I’m sure that the right wing news channels will be screaming about this cost — or would be if this was a renewable energy project.

That is all for now and have a sunny September!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/2/2190862/-USA-Electricity-Generation-Big-Drop-in-Coal-Burning

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