Coal news and updates

Coal production is poised to decline 3 percent worldwide this year led in part by sharp reductions in the U.S. power sector, including this month's closing of the Bruce Mansfield Generation Plant in Beaver County, according to a new report.An analysis released Monday by Carbon Brief said the cut in global electricity production from coal for 2019 would be the largest on record and equal to the total coal-fired power generation output by the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain in 2018.Blamed for the drop are the closing of large coal-fired generation power plants around the world with the biggest in the United States. Bruce Mansfield, while not mentioned in the report, was at one time one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the U.S. Its owner, FirstEnergy Solutions, sped up the closing of the plant from 2021 to November 2019 due to market conditions. Fifty-seven coal power plants were set to close in 2019.Other factors include cuts in coal-fired power in India and flat growth in China. In the United 

States, coal power generation dropped 153 terawatt hours between January and July 2019 compared to a year ago, according to Carbon Briefs data. During the same period, natural gas generation is up 112 terawatt hours.The coal industry has continued to take it on the chin in 2019, with lower prices for both thermal and metallurgical coal. The nation's largest private coal producer, Murray Energy Co., filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early November.

 

Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh