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Natural gas and coal struggle over US power markets

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has published a report regarding the respective shares of coal and natural gas in the US electricity generation mix from 2005 to 2017. As of 2016, natural gas accounted for 34% of the total domestic power generation and overtook coal as the leading generation source. Coal used to be the dominant power source until gas took the first place in April 2015 (monthly basis) and the trend eventually reversed in 2016. According to the EIA, this increase is the result of the increased cost competitiveness of natural gas in detriment to coal.



The EIA also reported the distribution per region (West, Midwest, South and North-East): coal only remains dominant in the Midwest while gas-fired generation became dominant in the Northwest (since 2011), in the Southern states (2015) and in the West since 2016.



Natural gas-fired generation capacity is widely spread throughout the entire US territory and each US state has at least one gas-fired plant except Vermont. Over the past 15 years, gas-fired capacity strongly increased by 174 GW: 228 GW of gas-fired capacity were added in the US power mix while 54 GW were retired. In the meanwhile, coal-fired capacity dropped by 33 GW: 20 GW were commissioned while 53 GW were mothballed or stopped.



Monthly US net electricity generation

Monthly net electricity generation

Source: EIA (US Energy Information Administration)

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