Coal Was At 24.6% Of Utility Generation During Jan-Mar 2024; This Year It Was At 26.1% : NG Down Nearly 3% Same Period

Coal and utility-scale solar power each gained market share in the first half of this year, newly released data on U.S. electricity generation show. Natural gas, while still the market leader, lost some share. So what’s going on? The increase for coal and decrease for gas can be largely attributed to the prices of each fuel, according to analysts. The rising cost of natural gas has made coal the more affordable option for some power plant owners.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent the closure of old coal plants were too recent to have much of an effect on national data.

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This recent increase in coal power’s market share is not a sign of a bright future for the technology, said Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity modeling for the think tank Energy Innovation. “Short-run fluctuations aren’t stopping the long-run decline,” he said, pointing to several factors, including the fact that plants become more expensive to operate as they age. In the meantime, it is interesting to see where coal had the greatest gains this year. Indiana and
Michigan are among the states that stand out for having large increases in coal-fired power.



Michigan is home to the J.H. Campbell plant, which was scheduled to close in May but is staying open because of a Trump administration order that says the plant is needed to maintain grid reliability. Michigan utilities were already increasing their use of coal power due to market forces such as gas prices, even before the administration’s order. The order had minimal effect on this batch of data, since the plant was only operating in one month, June, when it otherwise would have been closed. Goggin analyzed this order in a report sponsored by environmental advocacy groups. He found that if the administration uses emergency declarations to stop coal plants from closing over the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, the positive effects on reliability would be minimal and the costs to consumers would increase by $3.1 billion to $5.9 billion per year.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04092025/inside-clean-energy-coal-solar-power-growth/