August 29, 2022--Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Although several gigawatts of coal-fired power has been retired in the U.S. in the past several years, with more retirements on the way, coal use in the U.S. nevertheless went up in 2021 from 2020 levels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

According to the EIA, coal produced 773,393 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of power in the U.S. in 2020. This rose to 898,679 GWh last year, an increase of 16%. While reasons for this vary, the rising cost of natural gas can account for some of the increased use of coal.

Companies featured: Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK), Xcel Energy Incorporated (NASDAQ:XEL)