According to a US EIA report, US power plant owners and operators plan to retire nearly 11 GW of thermal power capacity from the power grid in 2026, most of it either coal-fired (58%, 6.4 GW) or steam turbines and simple-cycle natural gas-fired units (42%, 4.6 GW). The largest coal-fired power plants to retire in 2026 are the 1,331 MW J.H. Campbell in Michigan and the 1,231 MW Cumberland Unit 2 in Tennessee. Two ageing California gas-fired power plants, AES Alamitos and Huntington Beach, with a combined capacity of 1,368 MW, will mark the largest gas capacity retirement in 2026. According to the government agency, these plans may be more subject to change than usual, with policy shifts recently delaying retirements at several coal-fired power plants.
In 2025, out of the 12.3 GW planned for retirement, only 4.6 GW were retired, following emergency orders from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to extend the operations of several coal-fired plants.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.