New Energy Economics Close A Coal Giant

A Massive Coal Plant That Asked for Trump’s Help Has Gone Dark

Will Wade, November 18, 2019 (Bloomberg News)

“…[T]he unraveling economics of coal proved too much for even a giant among power generators to handle…[After churning out electricity for almost five decades, the 2.25-gigawatt Navajo Generating Station,] the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S. permanently closed, becoming the latest testament to the [failure of White House efforts to stop] fossil fuel’s decline… [Local leaders asked] the president to fulfill his campaign promise to revive America’s Coal Country…[but the Navajo complex in the Arizona desert] proved no match against market forces. The shale boom unleashed record volumes of low-cost natural gas, undermining the economics of coal generators across the U.S. Cheaper and cleaner wind and solar farms also began squeezing the plant’s profits…

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Since 2010, power generators have announced the retirement of more than 500 coal-fired power plants with more than 100 gigawatts of capacity…Salt River Project. Arizona Public Service Co., NV Energy and Tucson Electric Power, the owners of the Navajo plant,] have agreed to make lease payments totaling about $110 million to the Navajo Nation so the site can be decommissioned [over the next three years and] monitored and operated as part of the region’s transmission system…Peabody Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. coal producer, has already shut the Kayenta mine -- on Navajo and Hopi tribal lands -- that supplied the plant…” click here for more

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