Full Title: Ripe for Retirement: An Economic Analysis of the U.S. Coal Fleet
Author(s): Lesley Fleischman, Rachel Cleetus, Steve Clemmer, Jeff Deyette, Steve Frenkel
Publisher(s): The Electricity Journal
Publication Date: December 1, 2013
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Description (excerpt):
In January 2013, Georgia Power announced that it would retire 10 coal units totaling 1,976 megawatts (MW), and in September 2013 , American Electric Power announced that it would retire the 580 MW coal – fired Tanners Creek Unit. These retirement decisions are part of the dramatic transition underway in the U.S. power sector, in which old and inefficient coal units are being retired in favor of cleaner energy sources like natural gas, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Since 2009, 20.8 gigawatts ( GW ) of coal – fired electricity generation has retired, representing 6.2 percent of U.S.’s 2009 coal fleet, and, as of October 2013, another 30.7 GW of coal generators is slated for retirement in the near future.