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Released September 29, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land,
Texas)--Amid forecasts for a surge in electric power demand from data centers, the U.S. government is pressing for more coal on the grid.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its monthly market report for September that it expected coal-fired power plants to generate 9% more power over the remainder of the year than they did during the same period last year. This is in part due to so-called shoulder season, when power-plant operators take facilities offline for regular maintenance.
If the forecast is accurate, it would be the first time that an increase in coal-fired power generation has occurred since 2021, during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal government, however, wants more. Already, the administration has made nearly $725 million in funding available this fiscal year to clean up abandoned coal mines. In an interview published Thursday by the Reuters news service, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said coal plants should delay closures as a stop-gap measure.
"Utilities across the country are saying, ''Thank you,'" Wright said. "'We don't want to close them.'"
That might not jive, however, with forecasts from the Energy Department. The EIA, the data cruncher for the department, said it expects utility-scale solar power to grow the most, with generation expected to end the year up 33% relative to year-ago levels.
"New solar projects account for more than half of the new generating capacity expected to come online this year," the EIA stated.
U.S. President Donald Trump, however, is no fan of renewable energy, decrying its intermittent nature, despite advances in battery energy storage systems (BESS). While advocating for more coal, meanwhile, the administration has issued stop-work orders for various offshore windfarms. A federal judge overturned an order on Revolution Wind recently, allowing work to continue on a facility that was nearly 80% complete before Trump tried to stop it.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project and Plant databases can click here for the project report.
Nevertheless, coal remains viable. The Department of Interior this month approved a mining plan for the Black Butte facility in Wyoming, aiming to extract some 9.2 million tons of coal from two pits. The facility can already churn out around 3.2 million tons of coal annually.
Subscribers can view the profile of the Black Butte mine here.
Data centers, meanwhile, are leading to swells in energy demand. In his interview with Reuters, the U.S. energy secretary, the former chief executive officer at Liberty Energy (Denver, Colorado), said the economy needs 100 gigawatts (GW) of new power capacity over the next five years to keep up, power he said would not come from energy sources that don't run 24 hours a day.
U.S. natural gas prices, listed as Henry Hub, are higher than year-ago levels, which also serves as an incentive for more coal-fired power generation. Elsewhere, the Trump administration opted to return more than $13 billion in non-obligated funds from the previous administration, describing spending on green energy as a scam.
"The American people elected President Trump largely because of the last administration's reckless spending on climate policies that fed inflation and failed to provide any real benefit to the American people," Wright said Wednesday. "Thanks to President Trump and Congress, those days are over."
The private sector, however, is largely beholden to its shareholders rather than the federal government. Recently, Babcock & Wilcox (Akron, Ohio) said it was investing heavily in efforts in the U.S. and European markets to convert coal-fired power plants to run on natural gas to address growing demand for data centers in particular, saying natural gas is cost-effective and quick to develop.
The EIA, for its part, expects coal consumption to decline because 6 GW worth of power capacity is set to retire this year. But declines are relative as regional needs differ and coal stocks are on pace for a year-on-year decline of 17%, showing the demand is still there.
"Most of the stock decline in 2025 occurs in the Midwest and South, which overlap with electricity markets where a large share of coal-fired power generation takes place in the United States," the EIA analysts wrote in the September report.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its monthly market report for September that it expected coal-fired power plants to generate 9% more power over the remainder of the year than they did during the same period last year. This is in part due to so-called shoulder season, when power-plant operators take facilities offline for regular maintenance.
If the forecast is accurate, it would be the first time that an increase in coal-fired power generation has occurred since 2021, during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal government, however, wants more. Already, the administration has made nearly $725 million in funding available this fiscal year to clean up abandoned coal mines. In an interview published Thursday by the Reuters news service, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said coal plants should delay closures as a stop-gap measure.
"Utilities across the country are saying, ''Thank you,'" Wright said. "'We don't want to close them.'"
That might not jive, however, with forecasts from the Energy Department. The EIA, the data cruncher for the department, said it expects utility-scale solar power to grow the most, with generation expected to end the year up 33% relative to year-ago levels.
"New solar projects account for more than half of the new generating capacity expected to come online this year," the EIA stated.
U.S. President Donald Trump, however, is no fan of renewable energy, decrying its intermittent nature, despite advances in battery energy storage systems (BESS). While advocating for more coal, meanwhile, the administration has issued stop-work orders for various offshore windfarms. A federal judge overturned an order on Revolution Wind recently, allowing work to continue on a facility that was nearly 80% complete before Trump tried to stop it.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project and Plant databases can click here for the project report.
Nevertheless, coal remains viable. The Department of Interior this month approved a mining plan for the Black Butte facility in Wyoming, aiming to extract some 9.2 million tons of coal from two pits. The facility can already churn out around 3.2 million tons of coal annually.
Subscribers can view the profile of the Black Butte mine here.
Data centers, meanwhile, are leading to swells in energy demand. In his interview with Reuters, the U.S. energy secretary, the former chief executive officer at Liberty Energy (Denver, Colorado), said the economy needs 100 gigawatts (GW) of new power capacity over the next five years to keep up, power he said would not come from energy sources that don't run 24 hours a day.
U.S. natural gas prices, listed as Henry Hub, are higher than year-ago levels, which also serves as an incentive for more coal-fired power generation. Elsewhere, the Trump administration opted to return more than $13 billion in non-obligated funds from the previous administration, describing spending on green energy as a scam.
"The American people elected President Trump largely because of the last administration's reckless spending on climate policies that fed inflation and failed to provide any real benefit to the American people," Wright said Wednesday. "Thanks to President Trump and Congress, those days are over."
The private sector, however, is largely beholden to its shareholders rather than the federal government. Recently, Babcock & Wilcox (Akron, Ohio) said it was investing heavily in efforts in the U.S. and European markets to convert coal-fired power plants to run on natural gas to address growing demand for data centers in particular, saying natural gas is cost-effective and quick to develop.
The EIA, for its part, expects coal consumption to decline because 6 GW worth of power capacity is set to retire this year. But declines are relative as regional needs differ and coal stocks are on pace for a year-on-year decline of 17%, showing the demand is still there.
"Most of the stock decline in 2025 occurs in the Midwest and South, which overlap with electricity markets where a large share of coal-fired power generation takes place in the United States," the EIA analysts wrote in the September report.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
