Should the U.S. Build More Coal-Fired Power Plants?

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The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has predicted that world energy use will grow an astounding 50 percent by 2030. In the U.S. , the EIA predicts that total electricity sales will grow by 29 percent by 2030 – even when taking into account conservation measures and new technologies. That energy will (obviously) need to come from somewhere.

While many will suggest natural gas and renewables as the primary means of achieving this growth in generation capacity, the simple reality is that with gas prices increasing rapidly (and domestic supplies dwindling), domestic natural gas supplies will not be able to keep up with growing industrial and residential demands. EIA predictions regarding natural gas are that new domestic gas discoveries are going to be “smaller and deeper, and thus more expensive and riskier to develop and produce.” This means that we will need to increasingly rely on imported gas. Over the past few decades we’ve relied heavily on foreign sources for our transportation fuels and we’re now looking at $145 per barrel for oil. Do we really want to do the same with our electricity supplies as well?

Renewables are certainly worth developing wherever possible. However, the supply of renewable energy is currently so limited that it is still listed as a part of the 3.1 percent of total energy generation provided by “Other Energy Sources” in EIA statistics. Although it is seeing growth, wind-based generation currently makes up only 1 percent of all generation sources in the U.S. Additionally, wind does not blow all of the time, so wind power cannot provide the always on 24-7 baseload electricity that we need. Any wind generation installation must be supported by another energy source to provide energy when it is not producing. Quite often that other energy is coal.

In contrast, coal is widely available in the U.S. Despite recent price increases, it remains one of our most affordable energy resources. We currently have over 230 years worth of reserves; over 29 percent of all of the world’s coal is located in the U.S – we’re not called the “ Saudi Arabia of coal” for nothing. Additionally, many people may not know this but coal already provides over half of America ’s electricity needs right now and it does so at less than half the price of natural gas generation. (When fuel costs alone are considered, coal is less than one quarter the cost of natural gas.)