Since 2010, the US power industry has retired or closed more than 500 coal -fired power plants. This action has reduced the coal -fired power generation capacity of more than 100GW among the US power structure.

According to the latest report from the US Energy Information Administration EIA, about one -fifth of these shutdown power plants are replaced by natural gas power generation or directly replaced by natural gas power plants.

According to data from the US Energy Information Administration EIA, from 2011 to 2019, 121 coal -fired power plants in the United States were used to burn other types of fuel. More than 100 retired power plants were transformed or replaced by gas power generation, and the replacement capacity was close to 30GW.

According to EIA, the decision of power plants from coal to natural gas is promoted by stricter emission standards, lower natural gas prices and more efficient new natural gas burning machine power generation technology.

As the US coal -fired power plant continues to respond to the challenges brought about by emission standards and low prices of natural gas, EIA expects that more such conversions will occur in the future, especially in the central and western United States and southeast. Eight of the planned power plant projects have been notified to EIA, five of which are under construction and will replace existing coal -fired power plants.

At present, natural gas fuel accounts for more than 35%of the US power generation, followed by coal (less than 25%) and nuclear energy (accounting for 20%). Now, renewable energy accounts for nearly 20%, mainly from hydropower, wind and solar energy.