List Of Coal-fired Power Stations In The United States
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This is a list of the operational
coal-fired power stations A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...
in the United States.
Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
generated 23% of electricity in the United States in 2021, an amount similar to that from renewable energy or
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
, but about half of that generated by natural gas plants. Coal was 19% of generating capacity. Between 2010 and May 2019, 290 coal power plants, or 40% of the U.S. coal generating capacity, closed. This was mainly due to competition from other generating sources, primarily cheaper and cleaner
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
, as a result of the fracking boom, which has replaced so many coal plants that natural gas in 2019 accounted for 40% of the total electricity generation in the U.S., as well as the decrease in the cost of
renewables Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
. However, some coal plants remain profitable because costs to other people due to the
health and environmental impact of the coal industry The health and environmental impact of the coal industry includes issues such as land use, waste management, water and air pollution, caused by the coal mining, processing and the use of its products. In addition to atmospheric pollution, coal ...
(estimated to average 5 cents per kWh) is not priced into the cost of generation. Some coal plants are considering only operating during periods of higher electricity demand, from December to February and from June to August.


Coal-fired power stations


See also

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List of decommissioned coal-fired power stations in the United States This is an incomplete list of decommissioned coal-fired power stations in the United States. Coal plants have been closing at a fast rate since (2010) (290 plants closed from 2010 to May 2019; this was 40% of the US's coal generating capacity ...
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List of power stations in the United States The United States is home to a wide variety of power stations. The list below outlines power stations of significance by type, or by the U.S. state, state in which they reside. By type The following pages lists the power stations in the United ...
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List of largest power stations in the United States This article lists the largest electrical generating stations in the United States in terms of current installed electrical capacity. Non-renewable power stations are those that run on coal, fuel oils, nuclear, natural gas, oil shale and peat, w ...
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List of natural gas-fired power stations in the United States This is a list of the largest operational Gas-fired power plant, natural gas-fired power stations in the United States. In 2019 there were around 1900 Gas-fired power plant, natural gas power stations in the United States, of which about 800 belo ...


Notes


References


External links

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Mapped: The world’s coal power plants in 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States * *Coal Lists of coal-fired power stations