The Changing Role of Coal in Electrical GeneratioN
NuScale VOYGR™ plants are the ideal solution to replace and make the best use of retiring coal and other fossil fuel plants. They provide a clean and economical option. Nuclear is cleaner than coal providing 100 percent carbon-free energy and is cost competitive, with more long-term price predictability than natural gas.Coal-fired power plants have been generating electricity in the U.S. for over a century. In 2015, coal plants generated 39 percent of the 3,944 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in the United States. However, coal’s contribution has steadily eroded; down from 50 percent just a decade earlier.
The pressure on coal generating assets stems from several sources.
Aging infrastructure has made many older and smaller units uneconomical to operate. Nearly 70 percent of coal-fired generating units comprising more than 50 percent of the coal generating capacity are more than 40 years old. At the end of 2015, the coal-fired generating units in the United States totaled 286 gigawatts of capacity. In 2015 alone, 11.3 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity were retired. EIA projects with a total of 30 gigawatts of coal-fired generating capacity will retire by 2025, 87 percent of which by the end of 2020.