SUGAR LAND--February 6, 2025--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Strong electric demand growth, supported by a fossil fuel-friendly president, is reshaping the U.S. Power Generation business, causing some coal-fired units to defer their retirement dates and others to convert from coal to natural gas, an Industrial Info subject-matter expert said this week.

"The phase-out of coal will continue, it's not going away, but it is proceeding more slowly than under the Biden administration," Britt Burt, IIR's vice president of research for the Electric Power Industry, said in an interview. "Last year saw the fewest coal-fired power plant retirements since 2015. Going forward, over the next 10 years, we are tracking about 73 gigawatts (GW) of planned coal retirements." That amounts to about one-third of all coal-fired generation currently operating in the U.S.