In what could be regarded as not so good news, 46 coal-fired units at 25 power generating plants across 16 states in USA will be closed and that will lower coal consumption by 30 MnT annually by the end of 2018.
The plant closures are expected in the following states: Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The plant closures are expected to hit the coal producers in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, North Dakota and Illinois regions of the US.
Nearly 46% (10.6 MnT) of the coal no longer required at the soon to be closed power units came from the Powder River Basin, and further 23.6% came from the Illinois Basin, making these the two hardest-hit regions.
The closures of the plants will result in 16 GW or 5.7% of the total coal-fired electricity in the USA going off-line. The closures are part of the efforts to move towards natural gas based power generation.
The transformative shift in electricity generation across the US is likely to be continued as intense cost competition from renewables and natural gas has started a trend toward more coal-fired plant closures and even led to some nuclear plant retirements over the past few years.
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