Retirements of coal-fired electric power generation capacity are set to speed up this year from a relatively low level of retirements in 2021 to the point of accounting for as much as 85 percent of all capacity retirements in the United States in 2022, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday. This year, power plant operators have scheduled 12.6 gigawatts (GW) of coal capacity for retirement, out of the total 14.9 GW capacity slated to stop operations. The expected coal capacity to be retired in 2022 accounts for 6 percent of the coal-fired generating capacity that was operating at the end of 2021, the EIA said in its latest inventory of electric generators. Coal retirements averaged 11 GW annually between 2015 and 2020, but slowed to 4.6 GW in 2021. This year, the pace of coal retirements will pick up again, the administration said, noting that old coal […]