Silicon Valley’s intense energy demands for AI are making coal-fired power plants a hot-ticket item again

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (AP) – Coal power plants, an increasingly loss of money in the United States, is increasingly precious that the suddenly strong demand for electricity to manage energy and artificial intelligence applications of Big Tech has triggered a complete sprint to find new sources of energy.

President Donald Trump – who put pressure for us “energy dominance” on the world market and suggested thatcoalcan help meet the demand for increasing power – exercises its emergency authorityattract public servicesTo keep older coal plants online andproduce electricity.

While some public services were alreadydilatoryThe retreat of coal -fired power plants, the dozens of coal -fired power plants that have been closed in the past two years – or will be closed over the next two years – are the subject of growing interest on the part of the interest increasinglytechnological companiesCapital Rismics,statesAnd others compete for electricity.

Indeed, they have a very attractive quality: high voltage lines connecting to the electrical network which they no longer use and that a new center could use.

This ready -to -take connection could allow a new generation of power plants –gas,,nuclearWind, solar or even storage of batteries – to help meet the demand of new power sources more quickly.

For years, the bureaucratic nightmare around the construction of new high -voltage power lines has made efforts to obtain permits for such interconnections for new power plants, said John Jacobs, analyst of energy policy for Washington, Bipartisan Policy Center, based in DC.

“They are very interested in the potential here. Everyone sees in a way the writing on the wall for the need for transmission infrastructure, the need for a power of the company clean, the difficulty of locating projects and the value of reuse the sites of brownfield industrial,” said Jacobs.

Ris at the request of power, the dying coal power plants

By coincidence, the rhythm of pensions of the aging coal power plants in the country had been planned to accelerate at a time when the demand for electricity has increased for the first time in decades.

The Ministry of Energy, in a December report, said that its strategy of satisfying this request includes the reuse of coal -fired power plants, which could not compete with a low -market flow of natural gas while being overwhelmed by stricter pollution regulations aimed at its relatively strong emissions of greenhouse gases rechoking the planets.

There are also federal incentives – such as tax credits and loan guarantees – which encourage the redevelopment of coal -resuming power plants in new energy sources.

Todd Snitchler, president and chief executive officer of the Electric Power Supply Association, who represents the owners of independent power plants, said that he expected that Trump decrees will mean that certain coal -fired power plants work longer than they would have – but that they are always intended for retirement.

The request for demand means that power plants are necessary, quickly

Time is petrol to obtain online power plants.

The developers of the data center report one year's expectation in certain regions to connect to the regional electrical network. Highlight approvals to build power lines can also be difficult to obtain, given the objections of neighbors who may not want to live near them.

Stephen Defrank, president of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said that he thought that the increase in energy demand had rendered coal retirement plants.

It is particularly true now that the operator of the electrical network congestioned Mid-Atlantic hasreconfigured his plansTo promote sites such as coal retirement plants as a shortcut to meet demand, Defrank said.

“This will make these properties more precious because now, as long as I am ready to shovel, these power stations have already established this connection, I can enter and convert it to what,” said Defrank.

Gas, solar and more on coal sites

In Pennsylvania, the vast majority of conversions are probably natural gas because the Pennsylvania is at the top of the prolific Schist reservoir in Marcellus, said Defrank.

In southern states, public services replace retired or retired coal units with gas. Which includes a plant belonging to theTennessee Valley Authority; A Duke Energy project in North Carolina; and a power of Georgiafactory.

The high -voltage lines of retired coal power plants on the Atlantic coast of New Jersey and Massachusetts were used to connect offshore wind turbines to electrical networks.

In Alabama, the site of a coal factory, the factory gorgas, closed in 2019, will house the battery energy storage plant on the scale of the first scale of Alabama Power.

Vistra, based in Texas, is installing solar panels and energy storage factories in a retirement and always retired coal plants in Illinois, thanks in part toStates subsidiesApproved there in 2021.

Nuclear power could come

Nuclear also gets ahard look.

In Arizona, legislators are advancing legislation to facilitate the task of three public services – Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power – to put advanced nuclear reactors on the retirement sites of coal power plants.

At the request of the Governor of Indiana, the Purdue University studied how the State could attract a new nuclear industry. In his November report, he estimated that the reuse of a coal factory site for a new nuclear power plant could reduce the costs of the project between 7% and 26%.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, in a study in 2023 before the request for electricity begins to stand up, estimated that nuclear power plants could reduce costs from 15% to 35% by building on a coal -fired power station, compared to the construction of a new site.

Even construction next to the coal power plant could reduce costs by 10% using transmission assets, roads and buildings while avoiding certain obstacles, the center said.

This interconnection was a major engine forTerrorWhen he chose to start construction in Wyoming on a new generation nuclear power plant next to the Pacificorp coal power plant.

Jobs, cities left by coal

Kathryn Huff, former US assistant to nuclear energy who is now an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the department had analyzed the number of sites that could be adapted to the advanced factories of nuclear reactors.

A convincing factor is the coal -fired workers who can be trained at work in a nuclear power plant, Huff said. These include electricians, welders and maintenance technicians with the steam turbine.

In Homer City, the fear of losing its coal factory – it closed its doors in 2023 after operating for 54 years – existed for years in the hills of the coal country in the west of Pennsylvania.

“It was a 20-year record here for our region, perhaps even longer than that, with the closure of the mines, and it was the last nail, with the closure of the plant,” said Rob Nymick, director of Homer City. “It was like,” Oh my God, what are we doing? ” »»

It changes.

In recent weeks, the owners of the factory have demolished the smoke stacks and the cooling towers of the generation state of Homer City andannouncementA 10 billion dollars plan for a data center campus powered by natural gas.

It would be the third generator of energy in the country and which sowed a certain optimism locally.

“Perhaps we are going to have some families move, it would help the school district with their registrations, it would help us with our population,” said Nymick. “We are a dying city and I hope maybe we may be able to open and start to prosper. We hope. “

This story was initially presented on Fortune.com