About new coal plants

Here's something I came across researching updates for my chapter on coal-fired power plants. It is often less expensive to mine for surface coal than it is to drill for natural gas. That’s one reason that when the price of natural gas skyrockets, developers are encouraged to propose new coal plants to take advantage of that less expensive fuel source. The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory tracks the progress of new power plant development. According to their 2011 report, “Experience has shown that public announcements of power plant developments do not provide an accurate representation of eventually commissioned power plants. Actual plant capacity commissioned has historically been significantly less than new capacity announced.” But as of July 2011, eleven new power plants were under construction and one near construction, for a combined capacity of 7,704 megawatts from burning coal. The year 2010 was active for new coal plants, too, after many years of very few coal plants coming online. In fact, the DOE reports that more new capacity came online in 2010 than in any of the previous 25 years.