The Department of Energy announced on June 4th that it would invest up to $850 million to build, restart, and modernize U.S. coal plants. The funds will build two new coal-fired plants, one in Anchorage and the other in Mt. Storm, West Virginia, totaling 2.85 gigawatts (GW). They will be the first new commercial U.S. coal plants to come online since 2013.

Alaska’s Unique Situation

Anchorage is an odd choice for a new coal-fired plant only if you ignore Alaska’s geography. The University of Alaska Fairbanks completed a $245 million combined heat and power coal plant in 2018 to replace boilers from 1964, fueled by the Usibelli Mine roughly 100 miles south. Fairbanks has no natural gas pipeline, and locally mined coal was the only practical option.

Coal is cost-competitive when it is allowed to operate. Always On Energy Research’s modeling of Indiana finds existing coal generates power at roughly $55 per megawatt hour (MWh), while firmed wind reaches $129 per MWh and firmed solar $159 per MWh. FERC Form 1 data show the average U.S. coal plant generated electricity for $34 per MWh in 2020, and could fall to $29/MWh if the fleet ran above 80% capacity factor instead of the 43% it averaged in 2024.

Environmental Impact

The claim that coal is dirty also lags the data by three decades. Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions from the power sector dropped 94% since 2005, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions are down 88% since 1990, driven by scrubbers, selective catalytic reduction, and baghouses on coal units. UAF’s new plant runs a circulating fluidized bed boiler with the nation’s lowest guaranteed PM2.5 emissions rate for a coal unit, and emits 20% of the NOx of the boilers it replaced.

Original reporting: Must Read Alaska (Anchorage) — read the source article.